Eddie Hearn is expected to match Anthony Joshua, a lower fringe-level contender, for his December fight now that the match against Deontay Wilder is no longer happening. Joshua will NOT be facing Wilder for his fight in December. Instead, he will be matched against an unknown opponent who is no threat to him. In other words, it’ll be someone similar to Joshua’s last two fringe-level foes that Hearn dug up for him.
Hearn is working hard to protect Joshua’s career by avoiding dangerous fighters like Deontay and Zhilei Zhang, who would surely end his career and finish him for good as a money-fighter. Putting Joshua in with a killer like Deontay would be bad news for him, and Hearn doesn’t want to risk his golden goose before she’s finished playing 24K gold eggs.
It’s become obvious that Hearn isn’t going to risk Joshua’s career being finished off by the knockout artist Deontay (43-2-1, 42 KOs), who would ruin everything before AJ has gotten the huge pot of gold against Tyson Fury money. It is believed that Hearn is intentionally delaying the fight with Wilder until after Joshua faces Tyson Fury in March, which is expected to be the biggest payday for AJ. The rumored names for Joshua’s December fight are these guys: Agit Kabayel Demsey McKean Otto Wallin Jonathan Guidry.
“We had an offer from Saudi Arabia to fight Deontay Wilder. We accepted it, and Wilder accepted it. It didn’t materialize. So, now we’re at other venues for that potential fight,” said Eddie Hearn via talksport boxing. Joshua’s December Opponent Won’t Be Top Eight “No offer came from Skills Challenge in Saudi Arabia from finances. So, the fight between Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder collapsed. The money isn’t there,” said Gareth A. Davies. “Eddie Hearn traversed to talk about it potentially happening in the UK or happening in America in Las Vegas. There was even talk about a fight with Zhilei Zhang in China.” It’s pretty obvious that Hearn never wanted Zhang or Wilder for Joshua because he saw the big picture, realizing what would happen if he let AJ fight either of those guys. Yeah, Joshua would have a puncher’s chance of beating them, but with his fragile chin, and his timid, gunshy fighting style, he would be sparked out by Wilder & Zhang before he even had a chance to throw any of his own bombs.
The reality is, that Hearn isn’t going to let Joshua take ANY risky fights until after he fights Tyson Fury. Once that fight happens two or three times and Joshua’s is on its last legs, then Hearn will feed him to Wilder for that last payday. Then Joshua will sail off into the sunset, retiring with likely three or four consecutive defeats.
“So Eddie Hearn is vacillating around what to do with Anthony Joshua at the moment, and what they’ve come up with in the end is we’ll get him another fight that’s NOT one of the top 6, 7, 8 in the world, but we’ll keep him treading water and we’ll keep him progressing under Derrick James, even though he’s [AJ] doing a little bit of work with Ben Davison at the moment only because Dereck James is busy ticking over,” said Gareth. Agit Kabayel is ranked #12 WBA, can’t punch, and is the ideal next opponent for Joshua. The downside is he’s a complete unknown, so the PPV won’t be huge, but at least Joshua won’t lose. That’s more important. Hearn must prevent Joshua from getting beaten again to keep him marketable long enough to get the Fury fight.
AJ Needs To Remain Marketable
“They’re trying to navigate a root for Anthony Joshua to keep his career alive and keep him as a big earner, but keep him progressing towards potential mega fights with the likes of Tyson Fury,” Gareth continued. “That has to be one of the end games for them because that’s still a massive fight.”
