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Eddie Hearn announces dates for 2 Anthony Joshua fights

By Matthew Saljanin

Cardiff , United Kingdom - 26 October 2017; Promoter Eddie Hearn, right, and boxer Anthony Joshua during a press conference at the National Museum Cardiff, ahead of his World Heavyweight Championship bout with Carlos Takam, on October 28, at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. (Photo By Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
Cardiff , United Kingdom - 26 October 2017; Promoter Eddie Hearn, right, and boxer Anthony Joshua during a press conference at the National Museum Cardiff, ahead of his World Heavyweight Championship bout with Carlos Takam, on October 28, at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. (Photo By Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images) /
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We don’t know who heavyweight boxing champ Anthony Joshua will fight in his next two bouts, but we do know when and where they will take place.

Eddie Hearn, promoter of unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, announced today (via Twitter) the dates of Joshua’s next two fights. The first will take place Sept. 22 of this year, while the second will take place April 13 of 2019.

As well as both dates being finalized, Hearn announced that both will take place at the famous Wembley Stadium, which hosted Joshua’s instant-classic with Wladimir Klitschko last April. The famed arena seats 90,000 fans, and it is expected that both of Joshua’s next fights there will sell out.

Joshua has sold out his previous three fights, selling around 250,000 tickets combined. If his next two sell out as expected, Joshua will have sold roughly 440,000 tickets in just five fights, a true testament to his star power.

The opponent of his September fight has not formally been announced, but it is expected to be WBA mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin, per ESPN.

That leaves speculation as to who Joshua’s opponent will be for the April 13 fight. The opponent everyone wants to see is against WBC champion Deontay Wilder.

While negotiations for that fight recently fell apart, there is too much money involved for the two sides to not try to strike a deal again next year. Hearn has publicly offered Wilder a flat purse of $15 million, while also stating he would do a purse split of 70-30 in favor of Joshua.

Wilder, on the other hand, is now demanding a 50-50 purse split after the latest negotiations between the two sides went nowhere. If Wilder were to not come off of this demand (which I believe he will), Hearn will likely look at other options for Joshua in April.

If that were the case, who could Joshua fight to sell out Wembley? There is one option that seems to make the most sense, and that is Tyson Fury.

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Fury shocked the world in November of 2015 when he upset long-time champion Wladimir Klitschko in a fight that was frankly one of the worst boxing matches I have ever seen. Despite that, Fury won, and was the rightful winner, becoming the heavyweight champion of the world.

The scheduled rematch was called off when Fury was deemed unfit to fight, and this started a downward spiral outside of the ring for Fury. He gained an incredible amount of weight, as well as failing drug test for cocaine.

Stripped of all his titles, and in horrific shape, it appeared as though Fury would never fight again. However, after a two and a half year hiatus, Fury returned to the ring this June. While the fight was a mismatch, it showed that Fury was serious about his comeback, and had lost a ton of weight.

With a few more tune-ups, Fury would be ready for one of, if not the biggest fight in U.K. history.

Many fans still consider Fury to be the heavyweight champion of the world since he did not lose his belts in the ring. During his stretch of inactivity, Joshua seized the moment and was able to claim all of Fury’s belts.

This fight is frankly the U.K. version of Ali-Frazier, and while it would not be as anticipated worldwide as Joshua-Wilder, in the U.K. it would be a mega-fight.

It doesn’t take an expert to tell you how easily this fight would be to sell. Will the former champion reclaim his belts that he lost due to out of the ring incidents? Or will the current champion maintain his spot at the top of the division?

While the fight with Wilder would still be preferred by most for April 13, Joshua-Fury is certainly a good consolation prize if talks with Wilder were to fall through again.

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