Anthony Joshua Looks To Fury, But The Wait Will Likely Still Be Lengthy

With his spectacular knockout of Francis Ngannou Friday night in Saudi Arabia, former unified heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua is very much relevant, again, in the heavyweight title picture.

Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn remains confident in Joshua and had already spoken out this week during the build-up to the Ngannou fight to state that he feels the Brit could be this win away from securing a fight for the undisputed world title. And obviously, Joshua followed through with the booming right-hand knockout of the former UFC champ. 

Anthony Joshua Targets Winner of Tyson Fury-Usyk Match-Up

This ringside angle of @anthonyjoshua's finish is SAVAGE ☠️#JoshuaNgannou | #KnockoutChaos | #RiyadhSeason pic.twitter.com/YJYV8hPmmD

— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) March 9, 2024

Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury

This is, despite the two-fight agreement that already exists between champions Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk. Boxing Sites at TPP would already be quietly working up basic odds for the rematch, and no doubt there are already plenty of odds available for the scheduled fight.

WBC holder Fury is set to face the Ukrainian unified champion, Usyk, in May, with that fight also set to take place in the Riyadh Capital, and the eventual winner will be crowned the first undisputed heavyweight champion in the four belt era. For his part, the 44-year-old Hearn remains adamant that with the AJ win and if Fury triumphs over Usyk, the entire boxing world would be calling for a quick Fury v Joshua match-up.

Read More: The 5 Biggest Anthony Joshua Knockouts

“The dream for Joshua has always been to be undisputed. It’s probably one of the biggest fights in the history of the sport. Certainly the biggest fight in boxing now,” Hearn stated on Wednesday.

As fans will remember, back in January of this year, Saudi matchmaker Turki Alalshikh – one of the sport’s leading power brokers – revealed that plans had already been floated for the winner of the Joshua v Ngannou to be first in line for having the next shot at the undisputed title.

Money Won’t Be an Issue

Given Alalshikh’s position as chairman of Saudi Arabia’s general entertainment authority, added to the riches he can call upon from the Kingdom, he has very quickly established himself as a leading and influential figure in boxing. If this tie-up features high up on his wish list, then in many, and all senses of the meaning of the word, an educated guess states that only a fool would believe that this is not already in the pipeline and that it will not happen in the timeframe he wants it to.

After all, Saudi Arabia is quickly establishing itself as one of the regular homes of some of the biggest fight cards, and some of the undercards are proving to be pretty tasty as well.

Read More: ‘This Is Dream Come True’ – 5 Biggest Tyson Fury Fights

However, there are doubts that a Fury vs. Joshua fight for all four world titles would happen as quickly as is being intimated – at best, many others involved in the sport believe that a 2025 calendar would be the earliest that anything is likely to happen on this front, and even that might be premature unless we were talking about much later in the year.

The 2025 gambit comes from a source within broadcasters DAZN, as that is reportedly their own internal belief on the quickest a fight would occur based on their own planned schedule.

The added complication to this idea has been ably stated by Queensberry’s Frank Warren, co-promoter of the “Knockout Chaos” card and Fury’s representative, as he does not believe that the Ukrainian would step aside from contesting a rematch unless an injury or other unforeseen external factors prevented him from throwing his towel in the ring first.

Read More: Anthony Joshua: Reliving Thrill Of His First Professional Fight

He did, however, understandably get why there would be so much clamour for a quicker Fury vs. AJ clash, given they are rival Brits and the rivalry that has existed between the two promotional companies themselves ‘for God knows how many years’. That in and of itself, would be a natural draw for boxing fans for a variety of reasons.

That debate has now heated up with Joshua’s victory, and now, all eyes will be on the rescheduled bout for Fury and Usyk right back in Saudi Arabia.