Anthony Joshua is preparing for his return to the ring after suffering a devastating defeat at the hands of Daniel Dubois.
Anthony Joshua was stopped brutally in his most recent outing in a big upset by Daniel Dubois, and is now about to embark on the comeback trail once again.
Joshua is expected to have a rebuild fight at the end of the year before potentially going into a fight with Tyson Fury early next year.
Fury wants AJ and Usyk; he expressed to Turki Alalshikh in the phone call that drew him out of retirement.
Frontrunners for the first comeback fight for Joshua include Deontay Wilder and Jared Anderson, though there is one man AJ’s promoter does not want him to fight.
Jarrell Miller does not deserve the Anthony Joshua fight, says Eddie Hearn
In an interview with Boxing Social, Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, was asked about Jarrell Miller stating he had turned down an offer to fight AJ.
Hearn said, “If I was AJ I would never ever ever give that guy an opportunity. AJ actually would. […] If I was AJ, f— him.”
This comes after Miller’s history of fight withdrawals and his boxing ban. Miller was found guilty of using PEDs and suspended from the sport, causing his match-up with Joshua to be cancelled and forcing the Brit into a match with Andy Ruiz instead, which led to Joshua’s first upset loss.
Miller has since lost to Dubois and drawn with a broken-handed Ruiz. Miller was in talks to face Derek Chisora, who faced Otto Wallin after those talks broke down. He was then set to face Fabio Wardley, but withdrew from that fight too.
Hearn did not mince his words, though expressed that Miller’s name has come up and hasn’t been shunned from conversation because of his antics.
Anthony Joshua’s first-choice opponent will instead be thrown in with a hungry prospect
Hearn revealed that when looking for an opponent for Joshua, Dillian Whyte was the frontrunner.
Joshua beat Whyte in 2015, handing him his first of three losses. Whyte has recently looked lackluster, especially in his recent outing against Ebenezer Tetteh.
Despite that, Whyte having beat AJ in the amateurs technically makes them one win a piece, and would’ve meant a second fight in the pros would get much attention.
They were scheduled to fight for a second time in 2023, but Whyte was pulled from the fight after an adverse finding in his drug test.
Whyte was in talks with AJ and Joseph Parker, but opted instead to face a young heavyweight rising through the ranks.
Whyte will now face Moses Itauma, a highly-touted heavyweight prospect who seems destined for big things.