Eddie Hearn says Anthony Joshua wants the rematch with Daniel Dubois next, but he may not be physically ready for it in February.
Hearn is unsure whether Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) should postpone the rematch decision until the summer or wait for the result of the Dec. 21 Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk II fight and do Joshua-Fury later . Hearn says Joshua will make his decision in the next three weeks.
However, he said that since AJ suffered a fifth-round KO loss to IBF heavyweight champion Dubois on September 21. It’s pretty obvious that Hearn will continue to delay Joshua’s decision on his next fight until the Fury vs Usyk rematch on December 21st.
Hearn says these are AJ’s two options:
- Rematch with Dubois: According to Hearn, this is Joshua’s preferred choice for his next fight, but he is not sure if it is the best one for him to take.
- Tyson Fury: If Fury defeats Usyk to become the unified WBA, WBC and WBO heavyweight champion, Joshua can fight for all three belts in a big mega-fight.
The way Hearn is talking, he seems to be leaning towards Joshua taking the Fury fight next, which makes sense. Dubois is too powerful, young and rugged for the 35-year-old Joshua to have any real chance of avenging the loss.
It would be crazy for Joshua to fight Dubois again when he can make a bundle of dough fighting Fury. Even if Fury loses the rematch with Usyk, it is still a wiser choice for Joshua to face Tyson next.
“Anthony told me the fight he wants is with Dubois. The problem is, will he be ready for February?” asked Eddie Hearn iFL TV about whether Anthony Joshua will take the rematch with Daniel Dubois later.
“It would mean that we will be back in camp in three weeks, and after a few general views of the body, we should be 100% right. So, this is the delay. Do we fight in February, or do we wait until the summer? And if we do , AJ’s choice is to rematch Daniel Dubois,” Hearn said.
Who is Hearn trying to kid here? It is obvious that Joshua is delaying his decision until he finds out what will happen in the Fury-Ushyk II rematch because there is so much money in making the Fury fight. It’s so obvious that this is the fight that Hearn and AJ both want. They do not want to cheat with that young lion Dubois and get a second hide.
“He was saying, ‘I’d only do it in February’, but we have to be right. So that’s the decision we’ll make in the next few weeks. Do we wait until the summer, or do we jump? I don’t want to jump if it’s not ready to get back in the ring. No,” Hearn said when asked if Joshua could take a fight in between a rematch with Dubois if he has to wait until the summer to be ready for that fight.
How long does Joshua need to be ready? He’s already been out of the ring, licking his wounds for a month since being knocked out by Dubois. Does he really need four additional months on top of the month he already had to prepare for the rematch? It just seems like Hearn is making excuses for why Joshua shouldn’t face Dubois again and face his fate.
“Listen, there are two things that will happen. One, he puts Daniel Dubois back, which is his choice, or second, we’ll see what happens on December 21, and fight Tyson Fury. That’s all that’s going to happen. There’s no no interest in any interim fights. There’s no interest in any warm-up fights. He just wants the biggest fights here,” Hearn said.
Of course, Joshua is not going to take an interim fight because he could lose. There is a possibility that the punishment AJ took in his fifth round loss to Dubois could have weakened his already shaky punch resistance to the point where he could lose to Ham & eggers as well.
“Of course, he is a fighter. He wants to avenge his defeat, but if Tyson Fury wins (his rematch against Oleksandr Usyk), then you have Fury against AJ for the unified heavyweight championship. If Tyson Fury loses , then you have a couple of fights that could be the end for both men. I’m in the mind of AJ if he gives him the option, of course he wants to avenge his defeat,” said Hearn.
Hearn should be clean
It would be more refreshing if Hearn had just come out and admitted that he wanted Joshua to fight Fury instead of Dubois. No one honestly believes that Hearn wants Joshua to ever fight Dubois again under any circumstances because the outcome of that fight is so obvious.
Dubois is all wrong for Joshua and would beat him 100 out of 100 times. This has nothing to do with AJ’s age. This version of the 27-year-old Dubois would have beaten Joshua at any point in his strategically engineered career.
