Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder can arrange a fight for 2024 if both of them win in their individual fights on the same card in Saudi Arabia on December 23.
Deontay Wilder(43-2-1, 42KOs) will fight Joseph Parker(33-3, 23KOs) whereas Antony Joshua(26-3, 23KOs) will take on Otto Wallin(26-1, 14) in Riyadh.
Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk’s originally scheduled undisputed heavyweight championship bout on December 23 will be postponed in light of Fury’s terrifying 10-round exhibition bout with Francis Ngannou earlier this month. Despite winning by split decision, Fury was clearly hurt during the fight and afterwards.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn isn’t interested in setting up a fight between Joshua and Wilder until next year, even though they are the most popular heavyweights outside of Fury and Usyk.
“I don’t want to go on about the Wilder fight, but I think that’s March or April,” said Eddie Hearn in media reports.
“I put the blame totally on Eddie Hearn or Anthony Joshua, because if AJ wanted to fight Wilder and he thought he was confident enough to make a statement and fight somebody like Wilder, then what a statement would that be, it’s a mega fight,” said Carl Froch, a boxing analyst.
“Now that’s been pulled the fans have had the rug pulled from under our feet,” he added.
“You can see Anthony Joshua, Eddie Hearn and his team are still in the rebuilding process, because Otto Wallin is not a bad fight,” he continued.
Wallin and Parker are not slouches in spite of the disappointment. When Wallin from Sundsvall, Sweden squared off with Fury in 2019, he gave Fury a hard fight and cut him. Parker from New Zealand is a former World Boxing Organization champion.
“It’s AJ back out there against someone who is quite capable, we saw him against Tyson Fury and he gave him that nasty cut, he’s on a run of a few decent little wins since then, but let’s be honest it’s nothing to get too excited about,” said Carl Froch
“I’m very excited to be here,” said Deontay Wilder in media reports.
‘What a magnificent card. We have so many warriors on this card,” he added.
