Anthony Joshua has one of the best resumes of the current heavyweight crop, though there are still a few names from his generation that don’t feature.
Having beaten the likes of Wladimir Klitschko, Alexander Povetkin and Dillian Whyte as well as facing current top dog Oleksandr Usyk, Joshua will pride himself on taking on all-comers.
However, speaking to IFL TV, former undisputed champion Lennox Lewis was praising Tyson Fury’s thirst for ‘challenges’ when he said ‘AJ’ avoided a fight with Deontay Wilder.
“He needs that challenge. He’s up for challenges. When Deontay [Wilder] came over and challenged Anthony Joshua and Anthony Joshua didn’t take the challenge, [Fury] flew over to America and challenged Deontay. He’s always up for a challenge like that.”
Of course, Joshua’s team will take issue with that version of events. The two big hitters could have, at one stage, fought to determine the undisputed heavyweight champion.
Representatives for the fighters met as early as 2017 to make the fight, at that point a unification for Joshua’s IBF and WBA belts against Wilder’s WBC. The Brit would instead win the WBO belt from Joseph Parker before talk could restart. Again, nothing materialised despite reports of multi-million dollar offers.
The Brit would lost to Andy Ruiz Jr and go into an immediate rematch, whilst Wilder then started his trilogy with Fury, who ultimately snatched the WBC belt in the second fight and defended it in the third.
Negotiations started again last year with the pair set up for some interim fights before meeting in the ring. Joshua beat Otto Wallin and Francis Ngannou, but Wilder couldn’t hold up his end of the bargain, losing to Parker and Zhilei Zhang.
The fight once again has potential after ‘AJ’s loss to Daniel Dubois, though his promoter Eddie Hearn says there are just two fights out there – a rematch with ‘DDD’ or a long-awaited clash with Fury.
