ANTHONY JOSHUA has suffered a blow in his hopes to challenge for the world title with his next fight yet to be sanctioned for the belt.
AJ is due to be back in front of the 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium in September following three wins in Saudi Arabia.
And British rival Daniel Dubois is the leading name to welcome Joshua back to UK shores.
Dubois recently stunned Filip Hrgovic to win the IBF interim title – granting him the next shot at Oleksandr Usyk’s full version.
But with Usyk due to rematch Tyson Fury – following his historic win in May – he is not able to face No1 contender Dubois.
So there was hope the IBF would strip the Ukrainian undisputed champion to allow AJ and Dubois to challenge for the vacant strap.
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But the IBF told Sky Sports there has been NO request to sanction the all-Brit bout for the belt.
Usyk, 37, became the heavyweight division’s first four-belt undisputed champ following victory over Fury, 35.
And now the two are set to rematch back in Saudi on December 21.
Meanwhile Joshua, 34, is closing in on his first bout back at Wembley since 2018 with Dubois, 26, the frontrunner to face him.
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AJ recently posted on social media: “Nearly finished my negotiations for my next fight! Feeling motivated.”
Joshua has twice sold out Wembley for his world title wins over Wladimir Klitschko and Alexander Povetkin.
He also beat Carlos Takam and Joseph Parker at the 75,000-seat Principality Stadium in Cardiff.
His most recent bouts in the UK were at the O2, with wins over Jermaine Franklin and Robert Helenius that came after double defeat to Usyk.
Deontay Wilder was in the mix to fight AJ but twice fluffed his lines following defeats to Parker, 32, and Zhilei Zhang, 41.
So after Dubois’ win over Hrgovic, 32, he leads the line to fight Joshua.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
