As fans have no doubt read by now, former two-time heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua has put it out there that he will not be fighting in the summer, that instead of making the quick turnaround both he and his promoter Eddie Hearn said was essential as far as his chances of being able to regain a world title for a third time, AJ will not be returning to the ring until December.
This is obviously bad news, for both Joshua fans and for Joshua himself:
“My next fight is scheduled for December. Not ideal but everything is part of a bigger picture,” Joshua wrote on social media.
While Hearn had this response when he was asked why his fighter will now allow eight months to go by before he fights again:
“Nothing decided,” Hearn wrote.
Talk about being cryptic. But why is Joshua once again reverting to form in not having more than one or two fights a year? Prior to his win over Jermain Franklin, AJ was speaking about the need for activity. Yet now, as he has done since 2017, Joshua will have two fights at most here in 2023. Again, why? There is plenty of speculation out there. Is AJ going to undergo surgery and is this the reason he will be unable to fight until the end of the year? Or, is a massive fight with a Tyson Fury or a Deontay Wilder in the works for December and is AJ not willing to take a keep-busy fight in the summer for fear of losing and thus ruining the super fight?
We just don’t know, and it would be nice if fighters and their promoters could be less cryptic and instead give us, the fans who ultimately pay their bills, more information. All we can do is give AJ a pass and hope that he will indeed give us a big fight in December. It’s no secret the Saudis want to host a big heavyweight fight in December, so who knows, maybe we will get Joshua-Fury or Joshua-Wilder at the end of the year. Maybe.
As for Wilder, his trainer Malik Scott put out some cryptic news of his own regarding the next move for his fighter.
“We are about to head into pre-camp, the opponent that we’re looking at can’t be named right now, we have just a very, very big situation coming up and we’re going to be well prepared for it,” Scott told Boxing King Media. “What I will tell you, what I will promise you is that Deontay Wilder is going to be a two-time heavyweight champion of the world.”
So what are we to make of this? Is Wilder about to head to the Middle East for a big fight in December, and if so, against whom?
Talk about a muddled picture as far as the current heavyweight division goes. What Tyson Fury’s next move will be is anyone’s guess, as is the case with AJ and Wilder, while WBA/IBF/WBO heavyweight champ Oleksandr Usyk is expected now to fight Daniel Dubois next, this in a WBA mandatory defence.
This fight aside (which is not yet official), we fans have no real clue about what kind of a remainder of 2023 the heavyweight division will give us.
It’s hard to believe that there was a time when the world heavyweight champion regularly fought three times a year or more.