Anthony Joshua is plotting his way back to the ring having not fought since September 2024.
Joshua is very much towards the end of his career and likely only has a few fights left. The last few years have seen plenty of ups and downs for the former two-time world heavyweight champion. In 2021, he lost his belts to Oleksandr Usyk over 12 hard-fought rounds, and the following year he failed to win them back under similar circumstances in the rematch.
He then put together a four-fight win streak with a points win over Jermaine Franklin and impressive stoppages over Robert Helenius, Otto Wallin and Francis Ngannou. Last time out in September, he came up against IBF champion Daniel Dubois but soon came unstuck. He was knocked down in the first round and then stopped conclusively in the fifth, and has been recovering from minor injury ever since.
One clash the boxing world was always keen to see was with American knockout artist Deontay Wilder. However, Wilder has struggled to find his form in recent years after losing two of his three fights to Tyson Fury. Most recently, he was defeated on points by Joseph Parker and knocked out inside five rounds by Zhilei Zhang back in June.
‘The Bronze Bomber’ is finally back in action on June 27 against Tyrrell Herndon, and his manager Shelly Finkel has been talking up a potential clash with Joshua with Sun Sport.
“It would be a big, big fight still. Maybe not quite as big as it was, you know, five years ago, but it’s still enormous. It’s like in a way, Mayweather and Pacquiao wasn’t the same when they fought, but it was pretty damn big.”
He admitted that Ngannou could also be an opponent for Wilder, or he could go straight for the ‘AJ’ showdown.
“Or Deontay fights again this year after June and goes right into Joshua for the end of the year or next year. I believe that’s a Wembley card, so we’ll see.”
Should Wilder look good against Herndon, a Joshua fight becomes much more of a possibility. If he loses, however, ‘AJ’s promoter Eddie Hearn believes he should retire.
