{"id":392207,"date":"2025-09-02T15:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T15:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/392207\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T15:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T15:28:10","slug":"eddie-hearns-risky-plan-to-resurrect-anthony-joshuas-career-against-a-dangerous-tune-up-opponent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/392207\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn&#8217;s Risky Plan To Resurrect Anthony Joshua&#8217;s Career Against A Dangerous Tune-up Opponent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Eddie Hearn says they\u2019ve got to choose Anthony Joshua\u2019s tune-up opponent \u201ccarefully\u201d for early 2026 to prepare him for a big fight in the summer against the man he hopes will be Tyson Fury.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Weighing of Risks<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hearn wants to avoid Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) suffering an upset defeat and ruining his plans for one of the popular heavyweights. The four names that Hearn has mentioned for his warm-up fight are still risky for him, as he\u2019ll have been out of the ring for 16 to 17 months following elbow surgery and a fifth-round knockout loss to Daniel Dubois on September 21, 2024.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joshua\u2019s Four Candidates<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Tony Yoka<\/li>\n<li>Efe Jagba<\/li>\n<li>Frank Sanchez<\/li>\n<li>Jared Anderson<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Those are still risky fights for Joshua, who turns 36 next month on October 15. Ajagba (20-1-1, 14 KOs) would be a potential nightmare due to his power and 6\u20196\u2033 size. With a cannon right hand, he could ruin Hearn\u2019s plans for AJ.<\/p>\n<p>The 2016 Olympic gold medalist Tony Yoka (14-3, 11 KOs) isn\u2019t an easy out either. He can punch, and his 6\u20197\u2033 size makes him a threat to Joshua. Although Yoka has lost several times in the last three years, those were competitive fights in which he landed a lot of heavy shots.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve got to choose carefully for the next fight, and I think the best way in all of this is just to be honest and say the next fight will be a comeback fight to build into a roll of the dice next summer,\u201d Eddie Hearn said to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/boxing\/news\/20876\/13420942\/anthony-joshua-should-return-early-in-2026-before-targeting-tyson-fury-last-roll-of-the-dice-mega-fight\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sky Sports Boxing<\/a>. \u201cWe want that to be against Tyson Fury. If it\u2019s not, it\u2019s going to be a massive fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Safer Path Options<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are lighter punching heavyweights near the bottom of the top 15 that Joshua could fight that would give him a better chance of winning. Given that he\u2019s coming off a long break and a bad knockout loss to Dubois, choosing one of these fighters, I believe, would be a safer choice for AJ:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Johnny Fisher<\/li>\n<li>Joseph Goodall<\/li>\n<li>Michael Hunter<\/li>\n<li>Mahmoud Charr<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>\u201cWe need a top-15 guy [next]. We need someone so that AJ can come back in a competitive fight after being out for what will be over a year and get himself ready for what will be one last roll of the dice,\u201d said Hearn.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A History of Rebuilds<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For Joshua\u2019s four-fight rebuild job in 2023 and 2024, Hearn chose four lower-level fighters whom he did well against. Although technically Otto Wallin and Jermaine Franklin were contenders, they weren\u2019t a threat to beating him. Those types of heavyweights would be perfect for AJ to fight in early 2026 to keep him on course for a summer blockbuster.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA defeat now at this stage of his career would be devastating to those plans. So we need to get it right,\u201d said Hearn.<\/p>\n<p>Another knockout loss would put Joshua in a position where he would need to decide whether it\u2019s worth it to continue his career. With his power, speed, size, and pedigree, he could rebuild himself quickly if he could stay busy enough to squeeze in three or four fights in a year and a half. That\u2019s unlikely, given his age and his increasing tendency to fight once a year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJoshua\u2019s at a crossroads, but he\u2019s got the heart to come back. Look at Holyfield at 34, coming off a knockout loss to reclaim greatness. AJ\u2019s 36, not done yet, but the next fight will tell us a lot,\u201d said writer Tom Gray to Sporting News, talking about Joshua\u2019s next fight in early 2026.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1063\" data-end=\"1390\">Olly Campbell has been covering boxing since 2010 and has written for Boxing News 24 since 2014. Based in the UK, he now reports on the worldwide boxing scene, delivering fight news, results, and features that connect fans to the sport\u2019s biggest stories.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"440\" data-end=\"742\">With a background in UK and European coverage, Olly has developed a style that blends sharp analysis with accessible writing, making his work valuable to both dedicated followers and casual fans. His reporting consistently highlights champions, contenders, and emerging prospects on the global stage.<\/p>\n<p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.boxingnews24.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Boxing News 24<\/a> \u00bb Eddie Hearn\u2019s Risky Plan to Resurrect Anthony Joshua\u2019s Career Against a Dangerous Tune-up Opponent<\/p>\n<p>Last Updated on 09\/02\/2025 \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn says they\u2019ve got to choose Anthony Joshua\u2019s tune-up opponent \u201ccarefully\u201d for early 2026 to prepare him&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,257,4332,4331,4717,62894,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-392207","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-london","10":"tag-mark-robinson","11":"tag-matchroom-boxing","12":"tag-press-conference","13":"tag-riydah-season","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115135414481310054","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}