{"id":667248,"date":"2026-07-01T03:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T03:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/667248\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T03:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T03:28:11","slug":"eddie-hearn-names-anthony-joshuas-ideal-opponent-to-win-back-heavyweight-world-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/667248\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn names Anthony Joshua’s ideal opponent to win back heavyweight world title"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eddie Hearn suspects Anthony Joshua<\/a> will target the biggest available challenge if he manages to get past Tyson Fury later this year.<\/p>\n

The two Brits are set to square off in November, just so long as \u2018AJ\u2019 takes care of Kristian Prenga in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on July 25.<\/p>\n

Fury, too, is expected to enter a warm-up fight, possibly in August, after ending 16 months of inactivity with a unanimous decision triumph over Arslanbek Makhmudov<\/a> in April.<\/p>\n

And so if both heavyweights emerge victorious, and remain largely unscathed, then their long-awaited domestic dustup should finally come to fruition.<\/p>\n

For Joshua, though, it seems the ultimate goal at this stage in his career is to become a three-time world champion.<\/p>\n

A win over Fury would therefore take him one step closer towards achieving this ambition, which could involve any of the four major titles.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old is ranked in the top 10 by each sanctioning body and, with Oleksandr Usyk having vacated his WBC, IBF and WBA belts<\/a>, there could be an opportunity for his stablemate to claim one of those prizes.<\/p>\n

Matchroom promoter Hearn, however, believes Joshua would be eager to exact his revenge over Daniel Dubois, who stopped him in round five of their shootout in September 2024.<\/p>\n

Speaking with Seconds Out<\/a>, Hearn admitted that, as his promoter, he would rather navigate Joshua towards an \u201ceasier\u201d title shot.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Dubois] would probably be his choice. There will be easier chances, maybe, to win a world title.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s my job [to secure the easiest fight], and ultimately [Joshua\u2019s] the boss and he\u2019s going to do what he wants to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

While a Joshua rematch could materialise in 2027, Dubois must first defend his WBO title in a rematch with Fabio Wardley later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn suspects Anthony Joshua will target the biggest available challenge if he manages to get past Tyson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-667248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667248","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=667248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}