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Nick Parkinson
Anthony Joshua will fight the winner of the Oleksandr Usyk vs. Tyson Fury rematch in 2025 if he beats Daniel Dubois on Sept. 21, according to the boxer’s promoter Eddie Hearn.
Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs), 34, bids to become a three-time world heavyweight champion when he challenges English rival Daniel Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs), 26, at Wembley Stadium in London in front of an expected 96,000 fans, the highest crowd ever for a boxing event in the UK.
If Joshua wins, he will set up an even bigger fight against either English rival Fury or Usyk, who beat Joshua on points in 2021 and 2022.
WBA-WBO-IBF champion Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs), 37, faces Fury in Saudi Arabia on Dec. 21 after he outpointed Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs), 36, in May.
Joshua and Fury have been linked to fighting each other for four years now, but Hearn hopes it will finally happen next year in a two-part series.
Joshua, who ruled as champion from 2016 to 2019 and then from 2019 to 2021, has twice had negotiations with former WBC champion Fury break down and fail to produce a fight, despite the fight being valued at £200 million in 2020.
Hearn told reporters: “If he wins on Sept. 21 I believe he will fight Tyson Fury, win or lose against Usyk, but he also wants to fight Usyk for undisputed, that’s always been his dream.
“The great thing about Sept. 21 is I know Turki Alalshikh [who runs boxing in Saudi Arabia] will look around at Wembley and will be dying to do another one. In an ideal world, and this is nothing I have discussed with [Alalshikh], AJ wins, Fury wins, two fights next year for undisputed, one in Riyadh, one in Wembley. That’s just my hope but you have seen Turki’s keenness to do shows around the world, in Los Angeles, in London, and I think he is going to love Wembley.
“I know that if [Joshua] wins Sept. 21 the only fight he will want is the winner of Usyk vs. Fury II. Don’t get me wrong he has always wanted to fight Fury, he will do it, but when the decision is read out on Sept. 21 he will want the winner of that fight because he’s only one fight away from being undisputed himself.
“But if that could be Fury, to fight Fury for undisputed, it would be immense. If Usyk wins, he will want to fight Usyk. Ben Davidson has said to me if he fights Usyk he will knock him out. He had no game plan going into those Usyk fights.”
Hearn is confident Dubois vs. Joshua will sell out the extended capacity of 96,000, to make it bigger than Joshua’s other stadium fights against Usyk (at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2021), Alexander Povetkin (at Wembley Stadium in 2018), Joseph Parker (at Principality Stadium in 2018) and Wladimir Klitschko, which was watched by 90,000 at Wembley Stadium in 2017.
Hearn also reckons Joshua’s popularity is as strong as ever after he has rebuilt his career following defeats to Andy Ruiz (2019) and twice to Usyk. In the past 12 months, Joshua has won three fights by KO.
He said: “Wait til you see what is going to happen in London over the next two weeks with this promotion, it is going to blow your mind. It’s massive for boxing, the promo activity. Imagine the biggest promotion of any fight you have seen, and then attached 100 rockets to it and you are not even close.
“His last two fights have been on the road. We haven’t had a stadium fight with Usyk since 2021 in the UK but the momentum is back with him after the wins over Otto Wallin [in December 2022] and Francis Ngannou [in March]. He’s had a couple of defeats but he’s still massive. The momentum from an AJ win over Dubois would take him into a massive 2025 which could be the defining moment of his career.”
Source: www.espn.com