AN A LIST FOR AJ’S RETURN
EDDIE HEARN has revealed he is already eyeing up fights with Tyson Fury, Dillian Whyte and Deontay Wilder for Anthony Joshua ahead of his return to the ring against Jermaine Franklin on April 1.
Joshua, who has not fought since suffering a second successive defeat to Oleksandr Usyk back in August, will have his career on the line when he takes on American Franklin who gave Whyte a run for his money last year in a bruising encounter.
Despite admitting he is nervous about AJ’s comeback, Hearn already has plans for three fights he’d like to make for him.
The Matchroom promoter has ruled out Daniel Dubois as a genuine challenger but he did talk up the prospect of seeing old sparring partners Joyce and Joshua lock horns later down the line.
“Dubois is miles away in terms of the heavyweight division of the elite guys but Joyce is right in there,” Hearn said on talkSPORT.
“Those guys have sparred thousands of rounds, it’s brilliant to watch. But if you asked AJ about fighting Joyce, no problem at all.”
However, Joyce doesn’t appear to be in Joshua’s immediate plans.
Hearn added: “Joshua has three options after Franklin and they are Deontay Wilder, Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte.”
There is already bad blood between Joyce and Joshua after The Juggernaut recently declared AJ turned down a fight with his next opponent Zhilei Zhang.
When asked if he’d heard anything about talks over the prospect of Joshua facing Zhang, Joyce told iFL TV: “Apparently he turned it down. So, take from that what you will.”
Hearn also cited that Joshua would have no problems agreeing to fight Fury as long as the terms were the same as stated in previous negotiations between the two parties.