Anthony Joshua’s long-awaited battle against Deontay Wilder has been postponed yet again, with the earliest possible date now set for March, according to Mirror UK.
Joshua had planned to fight Wilder in the Middle East in December or January, but owing to the delay, he will compete in an interim match before confronting the American fighter in the spring. His most recent battle occurred in August, when he defeated Robert Helenius, only to find out afterwards that the Finn had failed a pre-fight drug test.
Furthermore, Anthony Joshua is also being considered for a shot at the IBF world title if it becomes vacant following Tyson Fury’s anticipated undisputed match against Oleksandr Usyk, scheduled for December 23 in Saudi Arabia.
Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, told iFL TV: “He wants to; he really wants to [fight]. We’ve been on calls with him all week. There’s a lot happening with the IBF situation. We’ll have to see. I think he’s going to fight in December or January.
“I think the Wilder fight, realistically, is not going to happen until March or April, at the latest. But he wants to fight. He wants to go back to camp and asked us to try and make him a fight for December; whether that spills into January, we’ll see.”
In the past three years, Anthony Joshua has participated in four fights, winning two and losing two. His back-to-back defeats came in world title contests against Usyk, but he bounced back by defeating Jermaine Franklin and securing a knockout victory over Helenius.
Regarding his most recent win, Joshua commented, “Any time’s a good time to fight. It’s only a fight. It doesn’t matter who it is. It could’ve been Wilder eight years ago or Wilder now. It is what it is at the end of the day.
“There’s no worry to me when it is. I’m just happy that we can get the fight going, and I think people appreciate that. I’m doing my best to keep heavyweight boxing on the map.”