Anthony Joshua wants Tyson Fury fight ‘more than anything’ – promoter Eddie Hearn explains plan that will lead to it | Boxing news

Plans are now being made that could lead Anthony Joshua to the “biggest fight in the sport” with Tyson Fury.

Fury, who missed the entire 2025 tournament, has indicated he wants to box again next year.

Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has welcomed Fury’s expected return.

“This is exactly what everyone wanted to hear,” Hearn said. Sky Sports. “The thing AJ wants more than anything is to fight Tyson Fury.

“This is the biggest fight in the sport… I’m optimistic.

“The only thing that comes close to this level (for Joshua) is winning the heavyweight world championship again, which is a huge motivation for him.”

The showdown with Fury will be next summer, where he will box Joshua at least once, but possibly twice before that.

There is a “small chance” that Joshua will be able to box before the end of this year and he will fight as early as 2026, possibly in February.

“The plan is very important,” Hearn said. “The most important thing is making sure he’s 110 percent confident and ready to beat Tyson Fury. We need to be able to plan for that for AJ to make sure he’s in the best possible place for what will be the biggest moment of his career, I think.

“If he fights this year, it will be a pure runout. He won’t be in the top 15,” the promoter continued. “Either he’ll fight those two fights before Tyson Fury, if that’s possible, or he’ll fight the one fight in February.

“We haven’t made a decision yet, but he’s keen to get back into action.”

Fury would likely have a bout of self-control as well. That could be dangerous. Previous contests with Otto Wallin, for example, and Francis Ngannou served as warm-ups for bigger fights that turned out to be more difficult than expected.

But Hearn said: “If he can’t win the edit, he shouldn’t get in the ring (with AJ).

“We want both guys to be firing on all cylinders to give the audience the best version of themselves, and if we can’t get the best version of them, then we might not get the fight.

“What we don’t want is two guys coming in who have been out for a year and a half, who are both a bit rusty.

“We need to allow these guys, who have been out of the ring for so long, to be in absolute pomp when they meet each other.”

Allen is the test Itauma needs

Dave Allen could put himself in mind as a potential challenger for Joshua ahead of the Fury fight, if the Doncaster man can beat Arslanbek Mahmudov on Saturday.

“All I’m saying is that a win would probably put him in the top 20 or 15 players in the world and he’s already with the WBA and we’ll pick him from a list like that. He’s British. He’s very popular. I don’t know who will be (for AJ’s training),” Hearn said.

“I don’t think there’s a single heavyweight in the world, other than Oleksandr Usyk, that you couldn’t match Dave Allen with if he won on Saturday.

“I even put Anthony Joshua in the mix, I put Tyson Fury in the mix because they’re two guys who are going to have a ‘comeback’ fight. (Musa) Itauma, Derek Chisora, Andy Ruiz, Deontay Wilder, Ajit Kapil and Xili Zhang.”

Allen could make sense for rising star Moses Itauma.

“I don’t think there’s a fight Dave wouldn’t take. It’s about the money at this point,” Hearn explained. “Itauma is a very tough fight, but Dave has a good way of testing the things we don’t know about Moses. Which is his chin, his engine and basically how strong he is.

“Dave is a guy who can weather the storm to take you to those rounds to find out. He’s of course an underdog to Moses, as are a lot of people.

“But again, step by step, Saturday night, then the world is his oyster as they say.”