{"id":71145,"date":"2018-04-03T13:07:14","date_gmt":"2018-04-03T18:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=71145"},"modified":"2018-04-04T00:49:34","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T05:49:34","slug":"who-and-what-is-next-for-anthony-joshua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=71145","title":{"rendered":"Who and What Is Next for Anthony Joshua?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Tyler \u201cThe Miracle Man\u201d White<\/strong><\/p>\n

As soon as the scorecards were read, the winner was announced and Joshua picked up his shiny, new WBO belt, the very question going through everybody\u2019s minds immediately was – \u201cwho\u2019s next?\u201d.<\/p>\n

Deontay Wilder – that is who it will most likely be!<\/p>\n

This is the man that almost every boxing fan wants to see Anthony Joshua fight next; he\u2019s the man that people believe will really test \u201cAJ\u2019s\u201d chin and his ability to fight under pressure.<\/p>\n

As \u201cAJ\u201d has said in a lot of recent interviews and press conferences, he\u2019s in this sport for the business as much as he is the legacy and the discipline that the sport provides; so he\u2019ll do whatever makes the most sense to him, both in terms of money, timing and whatever is necessary to take him closer to achieving his goal of becoming the unified Heavyweight World champion.<\/p>\n

What are the options?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

There really is only one credible option right now and that is, as stated above, for Joshua to face Wilder.<\/p>\n

However, by the looks of things, the Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn\u2019s perfect plan is for Dillian Whyte to fight and beat Wilder within the next few months, so that he can set up a rematch between Joshua and Whyte at the end of the year; with all the Heavyweight titles on the line.<\/p>\n

Whilst this makes business sense and would be incredibly lucrative in Britain, I cannot see it doing Joshua\u2019s legacy any favors as people genuinely want to see if he can cope with the power and unpredictability of the American Heavyweight.<\/p>\n

I also cannot see that Wilder and his team would be willing to risk losing his WBC title in a contest against Whyte. It wouldn\u2019t be worth the risk, with the opportunity to fight Joshua for a lot more money looming and with the opportunity to go down in history as unified heavyweight world champion that would come along with it!<\/p>\n

Realistically, \u201cAJ\u201d needs to fight Wilder ASAP before any of the governing bodies make him face a mandatory, otherwise he will either have to vacate a title – ruining his goal of unifying the division – or fight the mandatory opponent and put off the Wilder fight for even longer, with Wilder also having to make a defense in the mean-time.<\/p>\n

Fans call for Fury\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

After \u201cAJ\u2019s\u201d performance over the weekend and after a lot of people saying that he looked flat, many people have called out for him to face off against Fury, who\u2019s awkward style would undoubtedly cause Joshua more than a few problems!<\/p>\n

However, Fury is still getting back into full training and hasn\u2019t fought since the back end of 2015 when he dethroned Wladimir Klitschko; so a fight with Anthony Joshua is still far away and Tyson must get himself back into title contention first!<\/p>\n

The former World Champion will need 1 or 2 credible fights to get back into the swing of things after such a lengthy lay off and maybe then we could see \u201cAJ\u201d Vs Fury take place a year or so down the line.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

For now, boxing fans are going to have to sit patiently and wait and see what happens. Wilder has supposedly already agreed to take a 40% split in a unification fight with Joshua, but that\u2019s just speculation for now and until the fight has been announced and the contracts signed, we cannot be certain that it\u2019ll be taking place.<\/p>\n

If the Joshua Vs Wilder fight for some reason cannot be agreed upon; then we could have a very interesting situation on our hands which could potentially see Joshua fight Povetkin – who is now the WBA mandatory – and we could also see Wilder fight Dillian Whyte, who is the mandatory challenger for the WBC title.<\/p>\n

If this unification fight between Wilder and Joshua does not take place; then there\u2019ll certainly be a spanner thrown into the works, which could make the heavyweight scene a bit more exciting and potentially open it up very wide indeed.<\/p>\n

For now, I assume that the next big heavyweight fight we\u2019re going to see is the Joshua Vs Wilder unification bout and I\u2019m sure that all of the major governing bodies will be understanding of this as there\u2019s just too much money for them to make, to not get this fight to happen!<\/p>\n

[si-contact-form form=’2′]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tyler \u201cThe Miracle Man\u201d White As soon as the scorecards were read, the winner was announced and Joshua picked up his shiny, new WBO belt, the very question going through everybody\u2019s minds immediately was – \u201cwho\u2019s next?\u201d. Deontay Wilder – that is who it will most likely be!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[17895],"class_list":["post-71145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-who-and-what-is-next-for-anthony-joshua"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71145"}],"version-history":[{"count":-3,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}