Eddie Hearn wants Anthony Joshua to fight later this summer, but it won’t be against Jarrell Miller.
If nothing else, Hearn says, Joshua may not fight at all this season.
Joshua, the former heavyweight titlist from London, was recently in talks to fight countryman Dillian Whyte on Aug. 12 but negotiations foundered as the sides were unable to come to terms.
Now, Joshua is looking for a new opponent. However, there is a chance that he may not fight in that period at all because of a much-rumored possibility that he could fight Deontay Wilder in December in the Middle East.
The boxing world has been enthralled by the prospect of seeing a heavyweight bonanza emerge at the end of the year in Saudi Arabia that would, in unprecedented fashion, feature, on one card, Wilder and Joshua in one match, and WBO, WBA, IBF champion Oleksandr Usyk and WBC titlist Tyson Fury in another.
Hearn stated that while representatives in Saudi Arabia would prefer Joshua not to take up an interim fight in the summer, that opinion is not one shared by him nor Joshua’s team, including new trainer Derrick James.
“By the way, we may not fight (in the summer),” Hearn said of Joshua in an interview with iFL TV. “Saudi don’t want us to fight. We want to fight. We want Anthony Joshua to fight. It’s in the best interest in his development under Derrick James, to his career, to fight. That is the plan. We will do everything we can for him to fight on August 12th.”
Recently, promoter Dmitry Salita floated his disgraced client, Jarrell Miller, as a potential opponent for Joshua’s summer return. Miller, of course, was actually scheduled to fight Joshua in June 2019 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, but the bout was cancelled after Miller tested for a slew of banned performance enhancing drugs. Joshua would go on to fight late replacement Andy Ruiz Jr., who upset Joshua with a seventh-round stoppage.
Hearn apparently has no intention of considering Miller as a replacement for Whyte.
“I mean, it’s not a fight we are looking at,” Hearn said. “It’s not a fight that we’ve been offered. It’s not a fight we’re discussing. It’s not going to be Jarrell Miller on August 12th.”
Miller had tested for another banned substance ahead of a scheduled fight with Jerry Forrest in June 2020. Miller returned to the ring last year after serving a two-year suspension stemming from the Forrest fight. He is 3-0 since his return.
Hearn said he hopes to work with Whyte but noted that the brash heavyweight has limited options, given most of the top contenders have scheduled contests.
“We’ve done every Dillian Whyte fight for the last seven years, other than the Tyson Fury fight,” Hearn continued. “But Dillian can explore any fight that he wants. He’s not in a difficult position but there’s a lot of posturing, isn’t there? He can’t fight Tyson Fury, he’s not going to fight Usyk, he’s not going to fight AJ, so we have to make a compelling fight for Dillian Whyte and he wants a compelling fight, by the way. He boxed Jermaine Franklin last time. It’s ‘who is that guy?’ [Daniel] Dubois is fighting Usyk, [Joe] Joyce is rematching [Zhilei] Zhang. There’s been talk of [Derek] Chisora-Whyte III, that’s not with us, but I guess that could find a home somewhere. But Dillian needs to get back in the ring. If that’s with us we’d love that.”
Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.