Anthony Joshua could make his boxing return in a world title fight.
Joshua is a former two-time unified world heavyweight champion, although he has not held a belt since 2021 when he lost his first fight with Oleksandr Usyk.
The rematch also ended in a 12-round points loss for Joshua, though he rebounded with four wins, including three KOs over Otto Wallin, Robert Helenius and Francis Ngannou, before losing last September to Daniel Dubois.
That was for the IBF belt, which Usyk then claimed back in August to become undisputed for a second time. Waiting in the wings is Joseph Parker, the former WBO champion and now mandatory challenger, who is set to face Fabio Wardley next after Usyk claimed he couldn’t fight due to injury.
The winner of Parker-Wardley will either face the Ukrainian or be upgraded to full champion. If that happens to be Parker, he is looking to avenge a previous loss against Anthony Joshua – who was this month dropped from the Ring Magazine’s top 10 heavyweights due to inactivity.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Parker assessed the landscape.
“I’ve been wanting a rematch with Joshua. I want to avenge those losses. I know AJ’s another big fight, I don’t really care who I fight, just make sure it’s someone who’s top five in the world. You want to win it so it would be nice to fight someone to win it. I know you can get elevated to it and it gives you a bit more bargaining power. But it would be nice to fight for it.”
Parker and Joshua fought back in 2016. The New Zealander was the first man to take Joshua the full 12-round distance, though he ended up losing on points. He is in a fine run of form right now that has seen him beat Deontay Wilder, Zhilei Zhang and Martin Bakole in his last three bouts.
