Two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua has been offered fights with Daniel Dubois and Joe Joyce, following the breakdown in talks with Tyson Fury for a potential super-fight.
Contracts were being passed repeatedly between Fury and Joshua’s teams for a December 3 bout at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, as recently as the end of August, but eventually, the talks ended up breaking down at the last minute.
However, Fury’s promoter Frank Warren is also in charge of two of the world’s top heavyweight contenders, and would be happy for them to face the former champion.
Joshua is planning to make his return to the ring December 17, although the likelihood that he would come back from two losses by taking on a top-tier heavyweight is slim. Dubois is the WBA regular champion, while Joyce is the WBO’s ‘interim’ champion and knocked out Joseph Parker — whom Joshua couldn’t stop when they fought in 2018 — last month.
“If he wants to fight, there’s two great fights there with Joe Joyce and Daniel Dubois,” Warren said in an interview with iFL TV. “Both hold very significant positions in their respective organisations. They’re both mandatories. One is the interim champion, that’s Joe Joyce. Daniel is the WBA regular champion. There’s another way back if he wants to talk about it.”
With Fury in line to face Derek Chisora, who is signed to Joshua’s 258 Management and has had his last few fights promoted by Matchroom Boxing, it seems that the chances of the domestic super-fight still happening are non-existent.
Instead, Warren believes that Joshua will only get a bout with Fury if he can earn a mandatory position with a governing body.
“It’s off the table,” Warren said of the Cardiff showdown, which always appeared far-fetched from the start with multiple sources being skeptical of the potential of the fight going through.
“If you look at it, Joshua has to get himself in the mandatory position. To get into the mandatory position, he gets 20 per cent of the purse bid, whereas he would have gotten 40 per cent,” Warren said.
