Anthony Joshua is currently plotting his next move in the heavyweight division and it could seriously divide fans.
The two-time world champion and Olympic Gold Medalist will look to bounce back from a knockout loss to Daniel Dubois when he steps through the ropes again.
Though fans would like to see a long-awaited clash against Tyson Fury, ‘The Gypsy King’ remains adamant that he is retired and not interested. That leaves ‘AJ’ in the market for another opponent, and the current ‘frontrunner’ is as far away from Fury as you might get: Jake Paul.
Speaking to IFL TV, promoter Eddie Hearn revealed that his most recent meetings with Paul’s promotional company, MVP, have convinced him that their public calls to fight Joshua are legitimate.
“The thing that I wanted to understand is do they really want to fight AJ or is this just a publicity stunt. And I am 99% sure they want to fight Anthony Joshua … Right now, the absolute frontrunner for AJ is Jake Paul, February or March next year.”
The promoter then said that, whilst he understands the dangers the match-up possesses, those are outweighed by the potential scale of the event.
“I’ll stress, I think it’s a very dangerous call for Jake Paul. I don’t think the fight is overly competitive. Maybe Jake can do something and prove us all wrong. But people are gonna tune in to watch AJ demolish Jake Paul. It’s not a fight that we called for, it’s not a fight that we expected, it’s not a fight that I ever anticipated happening, but I also understand that it may be commercially one of the biggest in the sport.”
“This is just wild, that’s all it is … It’s mental that AJ could be fighting Jake Paul next, but when you look at it and see that it’s probably the biggest pay-per-view fight that could happen in the sport right now, you understand why it could happen.”
A decision is expected in the coming months, as Joshua, should he choose to stick to traditional boxing, could be out before the end of the year.