Anthony Joshua is ready to make his way back to the squared circle of truth. In 2023, Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn believes Joshua will not fight once or twice, but he believes that he’ll fight three times. During a recent episode of The DAZN Boxing Show, Hearn unveiled Joshua’s plan of action for the next 12 months. According to Joshua’s promoter, he has found a new trainer and will announce his next opponent in the near future.
“We pretty much know his date. We’re down to three or four opponents that we’re talking to,” Hearn told Akin Reyes and Barak Bess of DAZN.
“Obviously, rumors of his new training team, and there will be a full announcement from Anthony Joshua on that.”
Within the last 18 months, Joshua has dealt with a pair of major setbacks. After beating Andy Ruiz to regain the unified heavyweight title, he lost to Oleksandr Usyk in September 2021. Eleven months later, Usyk beat Joshua by unanimous decision once more. Despite suffering consecutive defeats for the first time in his career, Hearn believes that Joshua is feeling good about his future.
“He’s in a great place and ready to start camp, actually. I believe this week that camp will begin. Honestly, I couldn’t give Anthony Joshua an opponent that he would turn down. It’s more about the training team,” Hearn said.
“The plan now is to rebuild him to become a three-time heavyweight world champion, and the trainer will want to take the appropriate steps to do that.”
After getting back on his feet and finding an opponent for the first quarter of 2023, Hearn says Joshua would like to fight Deontay Wilder or Dillian Whyte in the summer. From there, the two-time heavyweight champion expects to fight either Wilder or Tyson Fury to end the year.
“It’s all very well being brave, listening to Twitter, going out, and fighting Deontay Wilder [next] and doing this and doing that, but there has to be a plan, a smart plan,” Hearn explained.
“A smart plan is he wants to return against a top 15 guy in a credible fight and return in the summer against probably Dillian Whyte and then move forward against Deontay Wilder or Tyson Fury in a mega fight in the ultimate 2023.”
