By Jack Tiernan: Eddie Hearn says the next fight for Anthony Joshua will be in January or February, possibly against Dillian ‘The Body Snatcher’ Whyte.
Hearn states that Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs) said that he wants the rematch with Whyte (28-3, 19 KOs) next. However, Whyte, 35, still needs to win his November 26th confidence booster against American Jamaine Franklin (21-0, 14 KOs) on DAZN at the Wembley Arena in London.
According to Hearn, Whyte is “probably the frontrunner” for Joshua’s next fight is he gets through the Franklin contest on November 26th without losing. Another option for Joshua is Otto Wallin.
Whyte is coming off a sixth round knockout loss to Tyson Fury last April, and he needs a solid win over Franklin in November to make him a viable opponent for Joshua.
“Probably January or February is where we’re looking at,” said Eddie Hearn to DAZN Boxing Show about when Anthony Joshua will be fighting next.
“In terms of names, talking to him the other day, he wants to fight Dillian Whyte, really. Dillian Whyte fights on November 26th against [Jamaine] Franklin, who is talking a tremendous game, and we’ll see how that plays out.
“I think Dillian Whyte is the frontrunner [for Joshua] if he comes through. Otto Wallin is a guy that has reached out numerous times. That’s a good fight for him as well.
“Then there’s the Wilder situation. I’m not saying that’s going to be the fight for January or February, but it’s definitely a fight that he’s looking at. The feeling for AJ is the value of, and by the way, none of them are easy fights, the value of a tune-up is sometimes they’re as dangerous as each other.
“I don’t think he [Joshua] wants to start dropping out of the top 15 and top 10 of the governing bodies and just looking for an easy touch. I think he wants a real fight, and those are all real fights that you could see.
“I’m not happy it didn’t happen because I got most of the blame,” said Hearn when asked if he’s happy the Joshua vs. Tyson Fury fight didn’t get made for December 3rd. It probably wasn’t the right time. But once he’d taken the bait, once he had it in his mind that it was the fight he wanted, that was it. The decision was made,” said Hearn.
