By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn has divulged the three likely next options for his struggling Matchroom flagship fighter Anthony Joshua if he gets past Jermaine Franklin on April 1st, and unfortunately.
At the top of the list for AJ’s next fight is the faded Dillian Whyte, who has arguably been beaten in three out of his last four fights dating back to 2020. It’s so utterly predictable who Hearn is going to pick that it’s not even worthy of guessing.
He wants Whyte, as AJ’s next opponent, something fierce and seems to think the fight will pull in big numbers. Maybe he’s right, but it’s an awful choice because Whyte is 100% shot at this stage of his career and would be food for even fringe-level guys like Luis Ortiz, Jared Anderson, or Zhilei Zhang.
If you toss Whyte in with any of those three, it would be a literal feeding frenzy. They’d finish Whyte off in no time, and Hearn wouldn’t be able to use him to make Joshua look good.
At this point in Whyte’s career, he’s fighting below the level of 39-year-old journeyman Derek Chisora, but he’s someone that British fans still want to see for some reason.
Hearn has been chomping at the bit to match Joshua against Whyte since last year when he brought in a massive crowd in his fight against Tyson Fury at Wembley Stadium.
“Joshua has three options if he beats Franklin: Deontay Wilder, Tyson Fury, and Dillian Whyte,” said Eddie Hearn to talkSPORT Boxing.
“People say, ‘You throw Dillian Whyte in there because that’s the one that’s going to happen.’ That’s the easiest fight to make.
“I don’t think there is any disgrace after the Usyk fights, going Franklin, Dillian Whyte, Tyson Fury, or Deontay Wilder. That’s a hell of a 2023.”
It’s arguably a waste of time for Hearn to get his hopes up for a fight between Joshua and Fury in 2023 because Tyson has become totally impossible to negotiate with at this stage of his career.
The only chance Joshua has of getting a fight against Fury is if he quickly agrees to everything he decrees. You hate to say it but Fury has become very kingly in the last couple of years, making him a pure nightmare for top dogs like Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk to deal with.
For sure, Joshua would have to swallow his pride to put together a fight with him because he would likely be treated as one of Fury’s underlings and definitely not on equal terms.
