Barry Hearn: Joshua at a crossroads but I still think he fights Fury by end of 2023
The Matchroom founder acknowledges that Anthony Joshua cannot afford another loss.
Matchroom founder Barry Hearn is well aware that they need to play their cards right with star fighter Anthony Joshua if they’re going to salvage him as an elite attraction. After all, Joshua has lost three of his last five fights and despite his better showing against Oleksandr Usyk in their rematch, Hearn says Joshua is back Stateside trying out some new trainers.
Obviously, that doesn’t seem to bode so well for Robert Garcia, who Joshua had selected to train for that Usyk rematch. So if that’s the case, Joshua is going to have to get in camp in line rather quickly as Hearn tells Sky Sports that Joshua wants to be active in the coming year.
“I think Dillian [Whyte] is on the list. There’s a few other names - Deontay Wilder might be there, Otto Wallin. It’s his call. He is at a crossroads in his career. He can’t afford another loss.”
The elder Hearn would continue by saying that the fight the British public still crave is the one between Joshua and Tyson Fury, and despite whatever the fighters might say publicly, they know that’s one that should come off in 2023.
“The fight we all want to see eventually is AJ against Fury. You’ll get stories, Tyson will say the fight is never going to happen, Joshua will say he’d rather fight Dillian White. Forget all of that. This fight has to happen, and I think it does happen at the tail-end of 2023, for all the marbles.”
We’re still along way away from the end of 2023 and plenty can happen between now and then to shake up the landscape of the heavyweight division. For now we’ll just have to see how everything in the meanwhile shakes out.