Eddie Hearn reveals Anthony Joshua’s ‘No 1 choice’ for his next opponent with Tyson Fury still retired – and opens up on retirement talk

Eddie Hearn has revealed Anthony Joshua‘s No 1 choice for his next fight with Tyson Fury still in retirement, dashing hopes of an all-British showdown this year.

The two heavyweight titans finally looked on course to lock horns, potentially in a lucrative two-bout deal, but Fury announced his shock retirement last month.

Indeed, the Gypsy King stunned the boxing world after revealing he had hung up his gloves just weeks after his second defeat by Oleksandr Usyk in December.

That has left Joshua scrambling for another opponent and he is likely to keep a close eye on Daniel Dubois‘ IBF title defence against Joseph Parker in Saudi Arabia.

AJ, still reeling from his knockout loss at the hands of Dubois in September, could look to fight the winner in a bid to clinch his third heavyweight crown.

‘Right now because Tyson Fury is retired, so put him to the side, the number one choice for AJ is to fight for the world heavyweight title,’ Hearn told BetFred. 

Anthony Joshua is on the hunt for his next opponent after Tyson Fury’s retirement

Fury shocked the boxing world after hanging up his gloves following his Oleksandr Usyk defeat

Eddie Hearn has revealed Joshua could take on either Daniel Dubois or Joseph Parker next

‘That’s 99 per cent of what he wants to do and if that’s Daniel Dubois, no problem.

‘If that’s Joseph Parker, no problem. 

‘If AJ turns around and says that’s what he’s doing, then it’s done.

‘It’s not me saying he can’t fight Daniel Dubois. Some people say he shouldn’t have fought Oleksandr Usyk. What are you talking about? 

‘It’s your job, he’s the mandatory, what do you want to do? Give your belt up and have all that criticism that you ducked Usyk and you vacated your belt to do it?’

Hearn also played down the prospect of Joshua joining Fury in retirement.

‘Not yet, but there will come the time,’ Hearn added. ‘Those kinds of conversations really come from behind the scenes from how somebody is performing in camp.

‘In camp, if you haven’t got it anymore, it’ll be apparent. The injuries will get worse, you’ll get hurt in sparring against somebody you shouldn’t be getting hurt against.

Dubois will look to defend his IBF title when he locks horns with Parker in Saudi Arabia

Joshua is still reeling from his knockout loss at the hands of Dubois in London last September

‘You’re not sharp and when that moment comes, that’s when the team will say “AJ’s not looking good you know”, and that’s the moment when I will probably have a conversation with him. For the Daniel Dubois fight, the camp was great. 

‘He was super sharp and we were really confident going into that fight, coming off four good wins, two really good wins, and we thought he would win.

‘We knew how dangerous the fight was, so he comes out, has a terrible start, never really recovers, comes back into the fight a little bit and gets chinned. No problem.

‘If camp had gone really poorly and we were unsure, I think that conversation may have been brought forward.’