A legend of boxing has called out two-time unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in a sensational statement.
It has been speculated in recent weeks that the 35-year-old from Watford is currently plotting his long-awaited return to the ring after being away from the sport for just shy of 12-months.
Joshua was defeated by fellow countryman and former IBF world heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium last September, falling short in his attempt at becoming a three-time world champion in the process.
After undergoing a successful operation on his elbow back in May, ‘AJ’ now appears to be in discussions with his team for a return which is expected to happen at some stage before the end of the year, although there is some uncertainty surrounding this.
Whilst Jake Paul is the current frontrunner to face ‘AJ’ next, Joshua could go down an entirely different route after he was recently called out by a hall-of-fame inductee who hasn’t fought since 2017.
Speaking on a social media livestream, two-weight world champion Andre Ward admitted that the only fight that would tempt him out of retirement would be a monumental showdown with ‘AJ’.
“There’s one name that I brought up before that when you say that name I can see myself fighting him. Present day. Today. If the business was right and everything was right on that front, me and Anthony Joshua.
That’s a fight that I would take at Wembley Stadium. It’s a dangerous fight for my legacy, it’s a dangerous fight across the board. But that’s a fight that would get me in the gym and get me in the mindset that I need to be in to go to war. It’s Anthony Joshua. I know he’s getting ready to fight Jake Paul, I ain’t talking about that. I’m talking about a real fight.”
Ward drew the curtain on his glittering professional career 8-years-ago, just a short while after he defeated Sergey Kovalev in their much anticipated rematch to successfully defend his unified light-heavyweight titles.
The 41-year-old from California holds an unblemished record of 32-0 to his name, defeating the likes of Carl Froch, Mikkel Kessler and Arthur Abraham throughout the course of his 13-year tenure.
