By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn is expected to match Anthony Joshua, a lower fringe-level contender, for his December fight now that the match against Deontay Wilder is no longer happening.
Joshua will NOT be facing Wilder for his fight in December. Instead, he will be matched against an unknown opponent who is no threat to him. In other words, it’ll be someone similar to Joshua’s last two fringe-level foes that Hearn dug up for him.
Hearn is working hard to protect Joshua’s career by avoiding dangerous fighters like Deontay and Zhilei Zhang, who would surely end his career and finish him for good as a money-fighter.
Putting Joshua in with a killer like Deontay would be bad news for him, and Hearn doesn’t want to risk his golden goose before she’s finished playing 24K gold eggs.
It’s become obvious that Hearn isn’t going to risk Joshua’s career being finished off by the knockout artist Deontay (43-2-1, 42 KOs), who would ruin everything before AJ has gotten the huge pot of gold against Tyson Fury money.
It is believed that Hearn is intentionally delaying the fight with Wilder until after Joshua faces Tyson Fury in March, which is expected to be the biggest payday for AJ.
The rumored names for Joshua’s December fight are these guys:
- Agit Kabayel
- Demsey McKean
- Otto Wallin
- Jonathan Guidry
“We had an offer from Saudi Arabia to fight Deontay Wilder. We accepted it, and Wilder accepted it. It didn’t materialize. So, now we’re at other venues for that potential fight,” said Eddie Hearn via talksport boxing.
Joshua’s December opponent won’t be top eight
“No offer came from Skills Challenge in Saudi Arabia from finances. So, the fight between Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder collapsed. The money isn’t there,” said Gareth A. Davies.
“Eddie Hearn traversed to talk about it potentially happening in the UK or happening in America in Las Vegas. There was even talk about a fight with Zhilei Zhang in China.”
It’s pretty obvious that Hearn never wanted Zhang or Wilder for Joshua because he saw the big picture, realizing what would happen if he let AJ fight either of those guys.
Yeah, Joshua would have a puncher’s chance of beating them, but with his fragile chin, and his timid, gunshy fighting style, he would be sparked out by Wilder & Zhang before he even had a chance to throw any of his own bombs.
The reality is, that Hearn isn’t going to let Joshua take ANY risky fights until after he fights Tyson Fury. Once that fight happens two or three times and Joshua’s is on its last legs, then Hearn will feed him to Wilder for that last payday. Then Joshua will sail off into the sunset, retiring with likely three or four consecutive defeats.
“So Eddie Hearn is vacillating around what to do with Anthony Joshua at the moment, and what they’ve come up with in the end is we’ll get him another fight that’s NOT one of the top 6, 7, 8 in the world, but we’ll keep him treading water and we’ll keep him progressing under Derrick James, even though he’s [AJ] doing a little bit of work with Ben Davison at the moment only because Dereck James is busy ticking over,” said Gareth.
Agit Kabayel is ranked #12 WBA, can’t punch, and is the ideal next opponent for Joshua. The downside is he’s a complete unknown, so the PPV won’t be huge, but at least Joshua won’t lose. That’s more important. Hearn must prevent Joshua from getting beaten again to keep him marketable long enough to get the Fury fight.
AJ needs to remain marketable
“They’re trying to navigate a root for Anthony Joshua to keep his career alive and keep him as a big earner, but keep him progressing towards potential mega fights with the likes of Tyson Fury,” Gareth continued. “That has to be one of the end games for them because that’s still a massive fight.”
It’s fair to say that if Joshua fights any of the top five heavyweight contenders, he loses badly, and the Fury fight then sails away for good. As such, Hearn isn’t going to let that happen, so he’s going to make sure he steers AJ away from guys like Wilder, Zhang, Arslanbek Makhmudov, Filip Hrgovic, Frank Sanchez, and Jared Anderson.
Until the Fury fight happens, any heavyweight with a shred of talent will be avoided because there’s too much money for Joshua to scoop up from that contest.
“If Tyson Fury beats Francis Ngannou and if Tyson Fury beats Oleksandr Usyk if they do two fights, and he beats Usyk twice, and Joshua hasn’t been beaten again by then, believe you, me, that is an enormous fight for a British audience still,” said Gareth.
“If Joshua’s had two wins in the meantime, but if he’s had one facile win and he’s been sparked out in five or seven rounds by Deontay Wilder, that Fury fight isn’t there in the same way.”
Obviously, the Fury fight loses much of the value if Joshua limps into it off the back of a brutal knockout loss to Deontay or Zhang, which is why Hearn is going to delay it as long as possible until after AJ has got the payday against Tyson.
At this point, Joshua’s career is just about business, not sport. He must keep winning until after he faces Fury, and the only way to ensure that happens if to maneuver Joshua around the many dangerous heavyweights that would send him into retirement.
“So they’re playing the chess board, they’re playing the chess game. December 23, for me, is deliberately trying to scupper the potential of Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, trying to go up against them, trying to draw British audience, but I think it’s foolish because that’s the fight that people will buy to watch,” said Davies.
There’s no chance that Fury won’t fight Usyk in December if he’s not injured from his celebrity match against Francis Ngannou on October 28th.
“That’s the fight that people want to see, the undisputed heavyweight title, and I don’t see Anthony Joshua either on an undercard of Connor Ben and Chris Eubank Jr,” said Gareth.
