By Eóin Kennedy
It’s been almost two years since Anthony Joshua suffered a second defeat at the hands of Oleksandr Usyk in their world heavyweight championship rematch, and the emotional in-ring speech following the fight, more so than the defeat itself, suggested that Joshua was at a crossroads in his career. We all heard about Joshua’s late start in boxing and how this has hindered his technical development in the sport and how winning a world title so early in his professional career deprived him of the opportunities to have more developmental fights along the way. There was a lot of doom and gloom surrounding the Joshua camp after the two fights with Usyk, but last Friday night after his devastating knockout victory over Francis Ngannou, the former two time world champion looked to be a fighter finally at ease with himself again after a prolonged period of soul searching. One factor that cannot be overlooked when studying Joshua’s comeback trail is how active he has been. Four fights in the seventeen months since the Usyk rematch is a good level of activity by today’s standards, and with Tyson Fury and Usyk contracted to fight each other twice before Joshua can get a look in again, the Englishman will want to ensure that he doesn’t sit around waiting for those two to be done with their business and lose any momentum. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn will definitely look to get his star man out at least once more this year, let’s take a look at some of the possible opponents:
Filip Hrgovic
Right now, it looks most likely that we’ll see Joshua back in action against thirty-one-year-old undefeated Croatian fighter Filip Hrgovic. There was significantly more hype about Hrgovic a couple of years ago, but following a narrow win over Zhilei Zhang in a fight that many he felt he lost and with only two subsequent fights against underwhelming opposition, it’s hard to truly assess how much danger Hrgovic poses to the elite heavyweight fighters. Hrgovic currently holds the IBF mandatory challenger position, so by fighting him Joshua would not only be keeping busy while he waits for the Fury-Usyk fights to be completed, but he would also assume that mandatory position should he win, thus removing Hrgovic as a contractual stumbling block in a potential fight with Fury or Usyk.
Dillian Whyte
Dillian Whyte has recently been cleared to fight again after initially failing a drug test and he and Joshua have a backstory that dates back to their amateur days in the UK. Joshua and Whyte were supposed to face off in their second professional bout last April, until Whyte tested positive for an illegal substance and had to be withdrawn. The fact both fighters hail from London, have had the same promoter and have an enduring rivalry that already captures the imagination make this fight an easy one to make and to sell. Whyte is set to return to action on a card in Ireland next week against old war horse Christian Hammer. If Whyte makes a statement win don’t be surprised to see Eddie Hearn banging the drum for the long-awaited rematch once more.
Joseph Parker
Joshua and Parker have already done the dance of death once, when the Englishman releived the Kiwi of his WBO world championship title, but the latter will argue that he is a much improved fighter now and would pose a tougher test if given the chance to run it back. From a scheduling point of view, it makes perfect sense as Joshua and Parker have both fought on the same consecutive pay per view cards in Saudi Arabia, so their training schedules will be completely identical already. What may deter Hearn from arranging this fight is the run of form that Parker has been on, with the New Zealand fighter looking incredibly impressive in his two most recent wins over Deontay Wilder and Zhang respectively. Joshua would still go into a rematch with Parker as favorite, but the likelihood is that this one will be swerved next.
Andy Ruiz Jr
The forgotten man of the heavyweight division and the first fighter to defeat Anthony Joshua, Andy Ruiz Jr, could be a surprise candidate to be A.J’s next opponent. Ruiz’ career has been pretty stagnant since that historic victory in Madison Square Garden where he shocked the world by knocking Joshua out, and his inactivity has drastically hampered his momentum, having only fought twice in the four years since the rematch loss to Joshua. But when you truly think about it, this could be a perfect match up to keep Joshua ticking over for a number of reasons; they’ve already fought twice and stand at one apiece so a rubber match is easy to sell, Joshua’s victory over Ruiz has always been criticized for being overly cautious so he could finally put a exclamation point on that win, Ruiz wouldn’t bring the element of surprise that he once did so there is little risk of being caught cold. The list of reasons goes on. Let’s see if Joahua’s promoter Matchroom opt to bring Ruiz back from the wilderness or go with one of the more obvious options.
