Eddie Hearn says Deontay Wilder is one of the potential opponents under consideration for Anthony Joshua’s next fight in July.
Hearn mentioned last Saturday night that these are the ‘Big Four’ that he’s looking at as potential opponents for Joshua’s next fight in July: Deontay Wilder, Joe Joyce, Dillian Whyte, and Tyson Fury.
Of those four, many boxing fans believe that Hearn will select the weakest link, Dillian Whyte, who has been knocked out twice recently with a woeful record of 2-2.
In an upside-down world, it would be understandable for Whyte to be given a fight against Joshua next, where repeated failure is the ingredient required to earn that clash.
Whyte should have a 1-3 record because his victory over Jermaine Franklin last November was controversial, with many people believing he should have lost the fight, which took place in London.
On paper, Joshua vs. Whyte 2 would be a similar fight to Fury’s recent trilogy match against the 39-year-old Derek Chisora last December.
Like Whyte, Chisora backed into a title fight against WBC champion Fury, with a dreadful 1-3 record in his previous four fights going into the December title shot. In other words, Chisora was given a title shot based on failure rather than achievement.
Joshua (25-3, 22 KOs) is coming off what most would agree was a disappointing lackluster twelve-round unanimous decision win over Jermaine Franklin last Saturday night in London. It is unknown whether it was a motivation issue that kept Joshua from showing the fire that he once had or a mental problem.
“I get asked all the time. There’s been a lot of talks going on about some very big fights in December, and we’ve just got to decide [who to match Anthony Joshua against for his next fight]. We’re going to fight in July,” said Eddie Hearn to iFLTV about the thinking process about finding who to match Anthony Joshua against for his next fight in the summer.
“Yes, once in July and once in December,” Hearn said when asked if Joshua will fight twice more this year. “It’s exciting, I know. So, we’ve just got to decide which type of fight we want for July.
“Do we go straight into a massive fight now? [Top Rank boss] Bob Arum phoned me the other day. I was quite surprised. We were just talking about AJ-Fury. He said, ‘What are you thinking?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, really. We’re all up for discussing the fight. I don’t know. I don’t think there’s going to be a major site fee for July, but we’re still willing to look at the numbers or if you want to wait and do it later in the year, too. But who knows what’s going to happen with Usyk or Wilder? We’ll have to see, but AJ is going to fight in July, 100.’
“You got Wilder is in the mix as well, but who knows? AJ-Wilder, Fury-Usyk, AJ-Fury, Wilder-Usyk, I don’t know, anything is possible, but obviously, those four are the big boys in the division at the moment, and there are some big options for them,” said Hearn.
