Anthony Joshua has been offered fights with Daniel Dubois and Joe Joyce after his talks with Tyson Fury broke down.
Contracts were going back-and-forth between Fury and Joshua’s teams for a December 3 bout at the Principality Stadium as recently as the end of last month, with talks breaking down at the last minute. However, Fury’s promoter Frank Warren also takes care of two of the world’s top heavyweight contenders, and would be happy for them to face the former champion.
Joshua is planning a ring return on December 17, although the likelihood that he would come back from two losses by taking on a top-tier heavyweight is slim. Dubois is the WBA regular champion, while Joyce is the WBO’s ‘interim’ champion and knocked out Joseph Parker last month, whom Joshua couldn’t stop when they fought in 2018.
“If he wants to fight, there’s two great fights there with Joe Joyce and Daniel Dubois,” Warren said in an interview with iFL TV. “Both hold very significant positions in their respective organisations. They’re both mandatories. One is the interim champion, that’s Joe Joyce. Daniel is the WBA regular champion. There’s another way back if he wants to talk about it.”
With Fury due to face Derek Chisora, who is signed to Joshua’s 258 Management and has had his last few fights promoted by Matchroom Boxing, it seems that the chances of a last-gasp effort at salvaging a domestic super-fight are non-existent. Instead, Warren believes that Joshua will only get a bout with Fury if he can earn a mandatory position with a governing body.
“It’s off the table,” Warren said of the Cardiff showdown, which appeared to be doomed from the start. “If you look at it, AJ has to get himself in the mandatory position. To get into the mandatory position, he gets 20 percent of the purse bid, whereas he would have gotten 40 per cent.”
It appears more likely Joshua will face somebody in the vein of Otto Wallin, Mahmoud Charr or Dillian Whyte in his first fight since losing twice in a row to Oleksandr Usyk. Promoter Eddie Hearn plans to get him active and winning again, before returning to challenge for world honours again.
