ANTHONY JOSHUA could end up making his boxing return on the SAME NIGHT as Tyson Fury’s proposed fight with Oleksandr Usyk.
Fury and Usyk announced they had signed for the heavyweight division’s first ever four-belt unification.
And although no date has been confirmed, December 23 in Saudi Arabia is a frontrunner.
Interestingly, Eddie Hearn revealed that is the same day he plans to stage the grudge match between Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr.
Meanwhile, Hearn has been in talks with Deontay Wilder’s manager Shelly Finkel over a blockbuster between the American and AJ.
But big bucks backers from Saudi have since pulled out, meaning the two handlers are now negotiating with new potential hosts.
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So Hearn has warned Joshua’s mega-fight with Wilder could be backdated to February and March.
And he even claimed Joshua could choose to stay busy with a return in December on the touted Eubank and Benn card.
He said: “It could go on December 23, maybe even as well.
“December 2nd is a fantastic card that we’re announcing on Saturday night for Britain and 23rd is our date for Benn-Eubank.
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“And I truly believe that fight will get made for that date.”
Fury, 35, returns on October 28 in Riyadh in a crossover clash against ex-UFC champion Francis Ngannou, 37.
But he has already announced his historic title unification with Usyk, 36, which is just eight weeks removed from the Ngannou bout.
Hearn – facing a clash of cards if he stages Eubank against Benn that night – is in the dark on whether the two bills will go head to head.
He said: “Look if we get the Eubank fight made, we will go December 23rd. Because we will have to announce that in the next two weeks.
“I don’t know whether they’re going to go December 23rd, maybe there’s some conversations with them before we announce our fight.
“But that’s our date and whilst the other fight is not announced there’s a good chance we’ll go straight up and announce.
That fight, in my opinion, will 100 per cent happen in the first half of next year, maybe even in the first quarter.
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“But we’ll have to see. Obviously, we don’t want to go on the same night, it doesn’t make sense for either fight. But we’ll see.”
Hearn insisted both Joshua, 33, and Wilder, 37, are still on course to finally fight each other.
But after Saudi funders fell out the picture, he revealed America or Britain could instead stage the bout.
He said: “That fight, in my opinion, will 100 per cent happen in the first half of next year, maybe even in the first quarter.
“I can’t tell you any more than I’m talking to Shelly Finkel and we’ve made it crystal clear, as they have to us, we want this fight.
“We’re talking about Vegas, we’re talking about Wembley and we appreciate the money might not be completely the same as what we’ve been offered by Saudi Arabia…
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“And money’s always important but I think both guys actually genuinely want the fight and when you get fights like Fury-Usyk made it does give everybody a little nudge to say, ‘Let’s make ours now.’
“And there’s a definite feeling from their team and ours to get that fight over the line.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
