Anthony Joshua’s return to boxing could include two long-awaited matchups with his fellow former heavyweight title holders, according to Eddie Hearn.
As the promoter told the Daily Mail, Joshua is eyeing a warmup up fight with American Dontay Wilder before finally taking on Tyson Fury in Great Britain’s biggest heavyweight matchup since, perhaps, Lennox Lewis’ knockout victory over Frank Bruno in 1993.
‘The AJ-Fury fight is one that we all need, you know, especially the Brits,’ Hearn told the Daily Mail on Wednesday in Brooklyn.
‘Wilder would be a real nice warm-up fight for AJ before Tyson Fury,’ he continued. ‘So in an ideal world, we’ll go Wilder for our warm-up and then Tyson Fury.’
Hearn cautioned that the plans still need to be worked out with Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and the man controlling boxing’s biggest purse strings.
Regardless, Hearn stressed, Joshua is ready to return to the ring following the December 29 car crash in Lagos, Nigeria that killed two of AJ’s friends and left the boxer with minor injuries.
: Anthony Joshua and Eddie Hearn, Chairman of Matchroom Sport, in attendance during the Dereck Chisora v Deontay Wilder on Saturday at The 02 Arena in London
Anthony Joshua looks on as he gets on a vehicle following a car accident, near Sagamu, Ogun State, Nigeria December 29, 2025. He suffered minor injuries, but two friends were killed
Eddie Hearn wants to put together the long-awaited Joshua-Wilder and Joshua-Fury bouts
Joshua is normally a private person who resists sitting ringside at other fight cards, but did exactly that on Saturday when he watched Wilder pull out a split-decision win over Derek Chisora in London. And according to Hearn, this is a clear sign that Joshua is invested in a return to the ring.
‘AJ’s ready for all the smoke,’ Hearn said. ‘Trust me. He went to the show last Saturday. He’s going this Saturday. This is very un-AJ like. He wants all the smoke.
‘So for us, we’ll have the warm-up fight against Wilder, and then we’ll fight Tyson Fury, and we’re ready to sign for both.’
For his part, the 40-year-old Wilder (45-4-1) is eager to finally fight Joshua after the two danced around each other for the better part of the last decade.
‘Let’s do it,’ Wilder told the 36-year-old Joshua (29-4) on Saturday.
But the 37-year-old Fury (34-2-1) doesn’t want to wait for Joshua to survive another warmup fight, and it’s not particularly hard to see why.
Back in 2019, Joshua was supposed to make easy work of fill-in fighter Andy Ruiz Jr. before moving on to lucrative bouts Wilder and Fury. Instead, Joshua suffered one of the biggest upsets in boxing’s recent memory at Madison Square Garden, while losing the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO titles in the process.
Wilder pulled out a split-decision victory over Derek Chisora on Saturday in London
Tyson Fury (R) attends the Grand Arrivals event ahead of this weekend’s Tyson Fury vs. Arslanbek Makhmudov bout, at 180 The Strand
Joshua would win a rematch with Ruiz in Saudi Arabia later that year, but his career has never quite gotten back on the same track.
‘That [Wilder-Joshua] fight was supposed to happen so many times over the last 10 years but then someone has had one more fight in between and someone has got knocked out or injured,’ Fury told reporters Wednesday. ‘I think we should get this fight on as soon as possible, in case something happens in between.
‘The problem is, in heavyweight boxing, anything can go wrong, there are no easy fights. And if you get knocked upside down, it’s finished, it’s done.
‘I want the fight next and I am sure that AJ feels the same.’
Fury, meanwhile, is set to come out of retirement to fight Arslanbek Makhmudov (21-2, 19 KOs) at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, where Joshua should be on hand.
As for heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, he’s staying busy with a bout against kickboxing legend Rico Verhoeven on May 23, which is to be held at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.
