Anthony Joshua is in search for a July opponent in order to best prepare him for a proposed showdown with Tyson Fury in November.
Fury returned to the heavyweight scene after a 16-month layoff, outboxing Russian powerhouse Arslanbek Makhmudov in a decision win at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to score a first victory since 2023.
In the aftermath, ‘The Gypsy King’ piled pressure onto ‘AJ’, demanding that he signs to fight him next, hoping to disrupt Joshua’s plans for an outing against an alternate foe this summer.
However, the Watford-born operator refused to dance to Fury’s tune and seems poised to stick to his original plan – fight in a ‘warm-up’ in three months’ time before a long-awaited meeting with ‘The Gypsy King’ towards the end of 2026.
As a result, there are a host of heavyweights hoping to secure a lucrative affair with Joshua, whose only fight since a devastating 2024 defeat to Daniel Dubois came against YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul last December.
In the aftermath, ‘The Gypsy King’ piled pressure onto ‘AJ’, demanding that he signs to fight him next, hoping to disrupt Joshua’s plans for an outing against an alternate foe this summer.
However, the Watford-born operator refused to dance to Fury’s tune and seems poised to stick to his original plan – fight in a ‘warm-up’ in three months’ time before a long-awaited meeting with ‘The Gypsy King’ towards the end of 2026.
As a result, there are a host of heavyweights hoping to secure a lucrative affair with Joshua, whose only fight since a devastating 2024 defeat to Daniel Dubois came against YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul last December.
