Who will Anthony Joshua fight next? Why Deontay Wilder unification showdown may have to wait

Joshua is just one fight away from becoming the first man in heavyweight history to capture all four major belts at the same time. But things aren’t that simple…

Things move quickly in heavyweight boxing, by far the most lucrative and dramatic division in the sport.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, down some anonymous corridor deep in the bowels of the shellshocked Principality Stadium, Eddie Hearn could not hide his frustration at being asked about Deontay Wilder for the thousandth time. Joseph Parker was yesterday’s news. And people were already demanding Anthony Joshua’s next snarling opponent on a platter.

“Oh mate, this is so boring,” he said with a weary puff of the cheeks, while the cramped room that held the bleary-eyed post-fight press conferences began to empty. “What more can we do? All I see is them on social media claiming that this is a fight they have wanted for years, but they haven’t approached us once. Not once. There have been zero offers.

“And there is a very limited amount of time left for that fight to happen. It has to be 2018. So if there is a deal to be done — that is the right deal — then we will do it next, no problem. If not then maybe we have one in the summer and do it in December. But I don’t know.”

It didn’t take long for the party line to be revised. Later that day, as a rubble-strewn Cardiff continued to nurse its collective hangover, Hearn’s old man made an appearance on BBC Radio Five Live with a decidedly more optimistic outlook. “I think negotiations will start next week,” Barry said cheerily. “It is a fight Anthony really wants and I think he wants it this year.”

Both father and son have made it clear that time is running out for Wilder to accept this fight — and that isn’t simply a marketing ploy cooked up at Matchroom headquarters back in Brentwood. There is a good reason why so few boxers have gone on to unify the four major world titles: namely because the obstacles that must be overcome outside of the ring are as difficult as the ones in it.

Already there are a glut of mandatory challengers that complicate the picture. The WBC has previously insisted it “will fully support such a tremendous bout” between their champion Wilder and Joshua, but Dillian Whyte is likely to be instated as their mandatory soon enough.

Meanwhile another belt means another mandatory opponent for Joshua: Alexander Povetkin defeated David Price in emphatic fashion on Saturday night to retain both his WBA and WBO titles. And to complicate things further the IBF recently ordered Kubrat Pulev and Dominic Breazeale to meet in a final eliminator. Joshua is hardly short of opponents.

The IBF could order a rematch against Breazeale (Getty)

All of these fights delay the one showdown everybody wants to see: Joshua vs Wilder with all four of the major world titles on the line. After all, as Hearn noted shortly after Joshua’s unanimous points win: “At some point somebody is going to have to drop a belt, and the whole point of the Wilder fight is to win the final belt. So we don’t want to drop a belt and then fight Wilder, that’s not the history fight it could be.”

“So it has to happen in 2018 as otherwise we’re going to have some major problems with the politics and the mandatory challengers.”

There are other options, just in case you weren’t already confused enough. After defeating Parker, Joshua could not resist not-so-subtly reminding Wilder exactly who possess the upper hand in negotiations between the pair. “They can come to Cardiff, or Wembley. We will stay here,” he laughed in unison with 80,000, as Wilder watched on from home. “All the time people used to have to go out to America to watch it, they don't need to anymore.”

Wilder decided against travelling to Cardiff (Getty)

But both Joshua and Hearn carefully rowed back on this outburst in the hours after the fight. “I’d love to go to America and actually look at the landscape, to work out serious they are,” Joshua said. “The US has potential,” Hearn added. “If AJ wants to be a truly global sportstar he needs to go to America,” Barry later clarified on radio, for good measure.

If Joshua was to head to American next, looking to smoke Wilder out ahead of one final unification showdown in December, he may end up fighting somebody else entirely: a 29-year-old rising star of the division, who has never before been beaten and calls himself the ‘Big Baby’.

Jarrell Miller last fought in November 2017, when he knocked out the grizzled old Pole Mariusz Wach, in his first fight since signing a co-promotional deal with Matchroom. “I’m going to fight Wach, then some other guy and then I get AJ, if he still has the belt,” he boldly asserted upon putting pen to paper.

A bout between the two therefore makes sense — even if it is not the fight the fans are clamouring for.

The likely lads

The four men who could fight Anthony Joshua next

Deontay Wilder:

The controversial American, unbeaten in a 40-fight career, is the opponent most boxing fans want to see next for Joshua. Promoter Eddie Hearn has not ruled out the prospect of it happening this year, although he has admitted to a degree of frustration regarding the approach of Wilder's management. If it does take place, then a win for Joshua would see him take Wilder's WBC belt and make him undisputed heavyweight king.

Jarrell Miller:

Unbeaten American Miller has made it clear he wants to face Joshua, and there are few who could doubt that he deserves a world title chance. Hearn is understood to be keen on a Joshua versus Miller encounter, and the Brooklyn-born heavyweight could well be Joshua's next opponent, especially if the Briton takes a fight this summer.

Alexander Povetkin:

Povetkin, a 38-year-old Russian, showed his considerable punching power by inflicting a fifth-round knockout on Liverpool's David Price in an undercard fight on Saturday's bill at the Principality Stadium. He is the mandatory WBO challenger and would undoubtedly be viewed as a dangerous opponent, but any fight would potentially lack the pulling power of a Wilder showdown.

Tyson Fury:

Joshua has made public his desire to fight former world champion and fellow Briton Fury, and while the contest could easily happen, it is likely to be some way down the line given that Fury has not fought since 2015 and is still working his way back to fitness. It would, though, be a contest that captures the imagination.