Legendary boxing promoter Bob Arum has suggested a next opponent for Anthony Joshua, but warned that “it’s over for him” at the top level, having been handed an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Daniel Dubois.
The 34-year-old was hit to the floor on three occasions before being knocked out in the fifth round at Wembley, handing Joshua the fourth defeat of his career after losses to Andy Ruiz Jr and Oleksandr Usyk (twice).
Joshua was handed a 28-day suspension from boxing after his stoppage defeat, which is standard practice in the sport, with plenty of speculation over who the Brit could take on next.
A blockbuster clash with Tyson Fury likely hinged on beating Dubois, while promoter Eddie Hearn claimed that a rematch clause could be triggered to take on Dubois for a second time, though that idea has been dismissed elsewhere.
Joshua has played down the suggestion that he could retire from boxing, while 92-year-old Arum believes that there is another Brit he could take on after losing his highly-anticipated showdown with Dubois.
Dismissing the idea that Joshua’s loss was a one-off for the two-time heavyweight champion, Arum told Fight Hub TV: “You don’t have an off night getting the s*** kicked out of you that way. I just think AJ has been through a lot of wars. And I think it’s over for him as well as over for (Deontay) Wilder. Maybe they can fight each other, that’d be good.”
Wilder has lost four of his last five bouts, the latest coming against Zhilei Zhang in Saudi Arabia in June, while also falling to Joseph Parker and twice to Fury on either side of a win over Robert Helenius.
His career is in peril but crucially isn’t finished, only in December was he promised a fight with Joshua should he defeat Parker.
He fell to a unanimous decision loss and was matched up against Zhang, who the former WBC heavyweight champion was defeated by, but Arum believes a clash with Joshua would be very fitting at this stage of their careers.
And Matchroom Sport chairman Hearn hasn’t ruled out the possibility, even though the promoter insisted a rematch with Dubois was the “number one priority”.
“I said to him (Joshua) yesterday, who knows, you’ve got between maybe one and three fights left,” Hearn told Boxing News. “The phone went a bit quiet when I said that to him, but that’s the realisation of where we’re at in his career. It will just be the biggest fights possible.
“I don’t rule out Wilder or (Joe) Joyce, but I think AJ’s going to want the biggest. He’s a fighter. His number one priority is to rematch Daniel Dubois.”
