Eddie Hearn To Match Anthony Joshua Against Fringe Contender In December

By Charles Brun: 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.

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.

“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.

Joshua’s December won’t be top eight

“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 in this discourse as well.

“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.

“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.

“If Tyson Fury beats Francis Ngannou and if Tyson Fury beats Oleksandr Usyk if they do two fights, and he beats Usyk twice, and Joshua hasn’t been beaten again by then, believe you, me, that is an enormous fight for a British audience still.

“If Joshua’s had two wins in the meantime, but if he’s had one facile win and he’s been sparked out in five or seven rounds by Deontay Wilder, that Fury fight isn’t there in the same way.

“So they’re playing the chess board, they’re playing the chess game. December 23, for me, is deliberately trying to scupper the potential of Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, trying to go up against them, trying to draw British audience, but I think it’s foolish because that’s the fight that people will buy to watch.

“That’s the fight that people want to see, the undisputed heavyweight title and I don’t see Anthony Joshua either on an undercard of Connor Ben and Chris Eubank Jr,” said Gareth.