Hearn says Joshua will fight Deontay Wilder if he beats Fury on Oct.9th

Eddie Hearn says his fighter IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua will fight Deontay Wilder if ‘The Bronze Bomber’ beats WBC champ Tyson Fury on October 9th and if AJ comes out victorious in his title defense against Oleksandr Usyk on September 25th.

Hearn states that Joshua’s goal is to become the undisputed champion. It doesn’t matter who emerges as the winner in the Fury vs. Wilder 3 match on October 9th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Joshua wants the winner, period.

With that said, Hearn has grave doubts whether the Fury-Wilder III fight takes place on October 9th. He isn’t saying why he doubts the fight won’t happen, but it could be that Fury will come up with another reason why he can’t take the fight.

Last time, Fury had COVID-19, and before then, he was trying to get out of the Wilder trilogy fight by walking away from his rematch clause.

The U.S. arbitrator prevented Fury from walking away from the bout with Wilder, so now he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place facing an angry and very motivated Bronze Bomber.

“Whoever has the belt. It’s never been about Wilder. It’s never been about Fury. It’s just been about being undisputed and whoever has that belt [WBC],” said Hearn to DAZN Boxing Show when asked if he’d be open to setting up a fight between Anthony Joshua and Wilder if the American defeats Tyson Fury on October 9th.

Hearn shouldn’t start counting his chicks before they hatch because it’s not a 100% certainty that Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs) will win his September 25th title defense against his WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs).

Joshua has lost before to Andy Ruiz Jr, and Wladimir Klitschko should have beaten him in 2017. Usyk has got more than enough pop in his punches and talent to hand Joshua his second career defeat and wreck Hearn’s vision of AJ fighting the Fury vs. Wilder 3 winner.

That’s the fight that Hearn needs to be worrying about rather than looking beyond the Usyk match towards Joshua fighting Wilder or Fury in early 2022.

Some boxing fans believe that Joshua and Hearn ONLY want to fight Fury, as he has no punching power and is made to order for AJ. As long as Joshua avoids getting hit by Fury’s rabbit punches, he’s got an excellent chance of obliterating him if that fight happens.

Wilder didn’t have the inside game to deal with Fury last time they fought in 2020, and this enabled him to use holding, leaning, and clubbing punches on the inside to wear ‘The Bronze Bomber’ down and stop him in the seventh.

Joshua has the size and a nifty uppercut that he likes to throw in close to give Fury nightmares. It would be foolish for Fury to try and fight Joshua in the same way he did Wilder, apart from the rabbit punches.

“I got a horrible feeling that fight doesn’t happen on October the 9th. I hope it does,” said Hearn in expressing doubt that Fury will fight Wilder on that date. “AJ has got to take care of Usyk. This is going to be a really, really tough fight.

“But whoever wins that fight, Wilder-Fury, it’s the target because it’s only ever been about being undisputed. First things first, Usyk on September 25th,” said Hearn.

There’s an excellent chance that both Joshua and Fury will lose their next matches, putting Hearn in a predicament. Does he then put together a loser’s bracket consolation contest between Joshua and Fury at that point or what?

Joshua vs. Fury would still make sense, even with them both coming off losses, but obviously not the fight it could have been.