After weeks of rumours and speculation that Anthony Joshua will return to fight in the United Kingdom in September, we finally have a date for when the full card will be announced as ‘AJ’ is expected to headline Wembley Stadium for the first time since 2018.
Joshua’s form and apparent mentality has seen an extraordinary improvement in his last two contests, knocking out both Otto Wallin and Francis Ngannou in statement wins since partnering up with former trainer of Tyson Fury, Ben Davison.
As a result, the two-time unified heavyweight world champion is considered by many as one of the top three contenders in the division and seems well poised for a shot at becoming boxing’s fifth three-time titleholder in the sport’s glamour division.
For this opportunity, it was expected that Oleksandr Usyk would be stripped of his IBF world title, which would subsequently be placed on the line in the upcoming showdown between Filip Hrgovic and Daniel Dubois – with the winner moving on to a clash with Joshua later in the year.
However, with just days to go until Hrgovic-Dubois and no movement from the IBF, it appears as though the winner will instead be presented with a shot for the vacant title against Joshua, in the headline bout of the blockbuster bill which is also rumoured to feature arguable pound-for-pound number one, Naoya Inoue.
In an interview with talkSPORT, newfound Saudi catalyst Turki Al-Alshikh invited both Jim White and Simon Jordan to this weekend’s ‘Matchroom versus Queensberry’ event in Riyadh, before letting slip the date of the launch press conference for the Wembley card.
“[I want to see you] when I come to London on the 25th of June to have the big [press] conference to announce the Wembley card, and I want to see Simon [Jordan] also once he has come back [from America].”
Alternatively, the IBF may opt to allow Usyk to hold onto their world title for the rematch with Tyson Fury, which has today been given a date of its own.
This would mean that a battle against either Hrgovic or Dubois would be relatively pointless for Joshua but could instead encourage him to finally face long-term rival Deontay Wilder – should the American be successful against Zhilei Zhang this weekend.
