Eddie Hearn says Anthony Joshua wants the rematch with Daniel Dubois next, but he may not be physically ready for it in February.
Hearn isn’t sure if Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) should put off the rematch decision until the summer or wait on the outcome of the December 21st Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk II fight and make Joshua-Fury next. Hearn says Joshua will make his decision in the next three weeks.
However, he’s been saying that since AJ suffered a fifth-round knockout loss to IBF heavyweight champion Dubois on September 21st. It’s pretty obvious that Hearn will keep delaying Joshua’s decision for his next fight until the Fury vs. Usyk rematch on December 21st.
Hearn says these are AJ’s two options:
- Fight rematch with Dubois: According to Hearn, this is Joshua’s preferred choice for his next fight, but he’s not sure if that’s the best route for him to take.
- Tyson Fury: If Fury defeats Usyk to become the unified WBA, WBC, and WBO heavyweight champion, Joshua can fight him for the three belts in a huge mega-fight.
The way Hearn is talking, he seems to be leaning toward 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 insane 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 still is a wiser choice for Joshua to face Tyson next.
“Anthony has instructed me that the fight that he wants is with Dubois. The issue is, will he be ready for February?” asked Eddie Hearn to iFL TV about whether Anthony Joshua will take the rematch with Daniel Dubois next.
“It would mean us going back to camp in three weeks’ time, and after a few overviews of the body, we have to be 100% right. So, that’s 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,” said Hearn.
Who is Hearn trying to kid here? It’s obvious that Joshua is delaying his decision until he finds out what happens in the Fury-Ushyk II rematch because there’s so much cash to make fighting Fury. It’s so obvious that’s the fight that Hearn and AJ both want. They don’t want to tangle with that young lion Dubois and get a second hiding.
“He would say, ‘I’ll just do it in February,’ but we’ve got to get it right. So, that’s the decision we’ll make over the next few weeks. Do we wait until the summer, or do we jump in? I don’t want to jump in if he’s not ready to go back to camp. No,” said Hearn 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 clash.
How much time does Joshua need to be ready? He’s already been out of the ring, licking his wounds for a month since being obliterated by Dubois. Does he really need an additional four months on top of the one month he’s already had to get ready for the rematch? That just sounds like Hearn is making excuses for why Joshua shouldn’t have to face Dubois again and confront his destiny.
“Listen, there are two things that are going to happen. One, he rematches Daniel Dubois, which is his choice, or second, we see what happens on December 21st, and we fight Tyson Fury. That’s all that’s going to happen. There’s no interest in any interim fights. There’s no interest in any warmup fights. He just wants the biggest fights out there,” said Hearn.
Of course, Joshua isn’t going to take an interim fight because he might lose. There’s the possibility that the punishment AJ took in his fifth-round blowout loss to Dubois could have weakened his already shaky punch resistance to the point where he could lose to even Ham & eggers.
“Of course, he’s a fighter. He wants to avenge his defeat, but if Tyson Fury wins [his rematch against Oleksandr Usyk], then you’ve got Fury against AJ for the unified heavyweight championship. If Tyson Fury loses, then you’ve got a couple of fights that could be the end for both men. I know in AJ’s mind if you give him the option, of course, he wants to try and avenge his defeat,” said Hearn.
Hearn Should Come Clean
It would be more refreshing if Hearn had just come out and admitted that he wanted Joshua to fight Fury rather than Dubois. No one honestly believes that Hearn wants Joshua to ever fight Dubois again under any circumstance 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.
