With a must see shoot-out with Deontay Wilder seemingly off the table for the immediate future, Eddie Hearn has cast out the net for a suitable opponent willing to face Anthony Joshua before the end of the year.
Joshua outpointed Jermaine Franklin in April, stopped Robert Helenius in August and wants to round out an active 2023 by continuing to build his relationship with his Texan trainer, Derrick James, and ensuring he carries some momentum into what could be a massive 20224.
On August 31st the WBA announced that Manuel Charr had been reinstated as their ‘Regular’ heavyweight champion as part of a court settlement. They also added that Charr defend his title against Jarrell Miller. Financial issues quickly scuppered that particular plan and ‘Diamond Boy’ was given 60 days to put together a defence against somebody – anybody – from the WBA rankings. Joshua sits at number three and is by far the most lucrative option Charr has.
Unsurprisingly, Hearn told Boing News that a Charr-Joshua fight has been proposed to him.
“That’s not the frontrunner. We’ve been contacted about that fight – I think a lot of people have – and I’m sure Charr would like to fight AJ,” Hearn said. “It’s a WBA ‘Regular’ world title. It certainly wouldn’t give us the right to say we were a three time world champion. I don’t know. Is he on a list of six? Yeah, probably. Is he a frontrunner? No, not really but who knows.”
The IBF recently issued their updated rankings. Filip Hrgovic remains at number one, Otto Wallin was installed at number two after beating Murat Gassiev last month and Joshua is positioned at number three.
The IBF gave their blessing for their title holder, Oleksandr Usyk, to move forward with an undisputed heavyweight showdown with Tyson Fury with the proviso that the winner makes an immediate mandatory defense of the IBF belt. If Fury and Usyk end up meeting in a rematch – something which is a long way away given that we don’t have a date for the first fight yet – and the IBF stick to their normally strict rules, Hrgovic and Wallin would box for a vacant belt. Hearn has his eye on that situation but the immediate concern is to get Joshua a fight and there are still plenty of potential opponents under consideration.
“We have to look at the Hrgovic-Wallin situation and see if we can find our way in there. [Agit] Kabayel is still an option, we looked at fighting him previously,” Hearn said.
“People have talked about [Joe] Joyce, I don’t see that as a fight. I see that as a mismatch. [Zhilei] Zhang I think is unlikely for December but he just wants to fight. He appreciates it’s not gonna be a mega fight but he really wants the activity and wants to be out again.”