The next fight for AJ is the comeback<\/a>. He\u2019s going to be coming back, getting the cobwebs off and getting himself some momentum. … Hopefully that will be Tyson Fury, but if it\u2019s not it will be someone in the top five.<\/p>\n\u201cHe will be gambling so the next one is a warmup, is how I see it. He understands the process and it’s not about the money, it’s about preparing yourself for the big fight and to win the big fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
On a likely opponent, Hearn added: \u201cIt’s not going to be some geezer who lost for the Southern Area title. He’s still going to be fighting someone in the top 20 in the world and they’re all dangerous. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut he fully understands what he wants and needs after this time out and I think Fury will be the same. I think Fury will want a comeback fight before AJ, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hearn also said that Joshua might yet fight Paul in 2026 after positive talks with MVP co-founder Nakisa Bidarian in the wake of the arranged Davis clash. However, the Matchroom boss did explain that Paul losing badly to 5-foot-5 Davis in the exhibition might damage those chances beyond repair.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a long call with Nakisa,\u201d Hearn said. \u201cThey want to do the AJ fight after Gervonta.<\/p>\n
\u201cI explained to Nakisa that if Jake Paul gets chinned by Gervonta Davis we can\u2019t fight you, mate. I know it\u2019s an exhibition so that probably won\u2019t happen but we have to wait and see what happens there first.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when you look at the current heavyweight picture we can\u2019t really turn down a Jake Paul fight because it\u2019s easier than all the other warmup fights out there and it\u2019s three times the money.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2014 Anthony Joshua is set to sit out the rest of 2025 before a comeback fight against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6842,6836,6841,6840,6834,6102,6837,6838,6839,6835,6588,6847,6846,6830,6828,6829,6844,6831,6827,6848,6843,101,6845,6826,6833,56,54,55,6832],"class_list":["post-118324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-community","tag-boxing-fights","tag-boxing-history","tag-boxing-interviews","tag-boxing-magazine","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxing-photos","tag-boxing-rankings","tag-boxing-schedule","tag-boxing-videos","tag-boxing-results","tag-disqualification","tag-draw","tag-fight","tag-fighter","tag-fighter-news","tag-knockout","tag-latest-boxing-matches","tag-ring","tag-ring-magazine","tag-split-decision","tag-sports","tag-technical-knockout","tag-the-ring","tag-top-fighters","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}