By Jake Tiernan: Anthony Joshua needs an impressive knockout victory in his stay-busy fight in December to create interest in his long-awaited super bout against Deontay Wilder in March or April of next year.
Gareth A. Davies thinks Joshua should potentially fight the likes of Demsey McKean or Joseph Parker in December to get an impressive knockout to help create buzz for his mega-fight with Deontay in the first quarter of 2024.
Obviously, the ideal guy for Joshua to fight would be his 2012 Olympic foe, Zhilei Zhang, as he’s very popular right now with hardcore boxing fans after his two victories over Joe Joyce and the robbery that took place in his fight with Filip Hrgovic last year.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn, is being a stick in the mud, showing no interest in matching him with Zhang, saying that would be an easy fight for him.
Of course, you can argue that Joshua has been taking nothing but easy fights lately against Robert Helenius & Jermaine Franklin, so why would Hearn have a problem with matching him against Zhang if he’s a soft job?
If Joshua is going to fight in December, Hearn is going to need to find an opponent for him quickly because he’s running out of time to get a live body.
“It would be someone who he needs to knock out and make a statement against. They could pick anyone. It could be Demsey McKean. Joseph Parker after he fights in October” said Gareth A. Davies to Boxing King Media about who Anthony Joshua should fight next in December.
“They’re not going to put him [Joshua] in against difficult guys like Martin Bakole before the Wilder fight. I think he should wait and just fight Wilder.
“In some ways, Joshua needs something convincing to get into that major mix again. He’s got to do a big roll of the dice, and the role of the dice is Wilder, and now Wilder has got mileage on the clock, even though he’s very dangerous after those three fights with Fury. Maybe it’s time to take that risk,
maybe it is time to do that.
Should Anthony Joshua sit and wait for a Fury fight? But they’re probably going to have to wait too long because Fury is fighting in November. I think he’ll fight in January, and I think he’ll fight again. I think there’ll probably be a Usyk rematch. It’ll probably be a two-fight thing,” said Gareth.
