Anthony Joshua confirms date for next fight and reveals Deontay Wilder is on four-man shortlist.

We already know and we have already been told it’s going to be the winner of Hrgovic - Dubois for the IBF belt. There is no 4 man shortlist

 

Imo Wilder is most possible option.
Dubois is out of the list because he will be destroyed by Hrgovic soo we got 3 names left.

At this moment (I still have little doubts and thoughts) in Wilder vs Zhang fight Deontay is my favorite. Why? With all his limitation Wilder got atributes needed to make Zhang weakness looking pretty bad.
He will be little bigger (height and reach), and much much quicker. Both got super punching power and not best defence. Zhang is better counter puncher but Wilder will not give him many occasion because he is not active boxer.
I guess it might be fight long, boring fight (walking on land mines field) and Wilder can be person who land first.

And if he KO Zhang there will be him and Hrgovic. Im pretty sure that they choose Wilder then.
Why? Its simple. Even if this fight is long after best days its still fight that will create much more cash and fame that fight with Croatian dude.
Second reason is style make fight. Even if Hrgovic got hard time with Zhang and Wilder will KO him still Filip can be much harder to beat for Joshua. He is far more active, Younger, better chin dude than Wilder who only try one combos per round.
Its easier to beat 39 years old boxer who throw 150 punches than boxer who can throw 700 and never was beaten before and looks like have granite chin.

Soo Imo Wilder is their plan.

For me personal I would prefer fight Joshua vs Hrgovic because from sports perspective it would be much more competive but I will not complain if Wilder vs Joshua happend because seeing Wilder Ko by dude who he avoid whole career will be fun too.

 

Nice one, but it's ain't AJ call. It's known that Turki will do the gala at London and pays for it, so he will be the one calling AJ opponent.
The reality though is, it will be Hrgovic/Dubois most likely, as the IBF will be on the line.

 

This is big coming from Fury fanboy. And everyone knows that Franklin beat Whyte, and not just that, he was better fighter, as he at least have his chin full, and Whyte was cracked million times ago, oh yeah by AJ.
Should i even mention that Whyte was the next AJ opponent, and he failed a drug test. Typical from Fury fanboy to forget all of the details, and just throw outs fat lies.

 

They'll chose Wilder or Zhang due to age

I'll be impressed if they pick Hrgovic

 

Fair comment, but I don't read too much into that. Many were complaining about the prospect of Hearn matching Joshua with Whyte, and the majority thought Franklin should have got the nod.

[url]https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/does-franklin-getting-a-shot-at-joshua-confirm-everyone-thinks-whyte-lost.697847/[/url]

Ended up being a lose-lose situation for them, wouldn't you say?

End of day, Joshua signed to fight Wilder, Wilder lost to Parker, so this looks to me like a life-line to get that fight made.

As @BlackDog is saying above, they'll fancy the risk-(massive)reward of fighting Wilder over Hrgovic

 

Hearn used to be a master at this but it's been done so often he has become the boy that cried wolf

 

Well, look at you getting all upset. Chill out kid. It's only a sport and you are taking it way too seriously.

 

I will LOL to see Wilder twitching at AJ's feet and Fury to break down in actual tears at the sight.

 

Joshua vs Wilder
Dubois
Hrgovic
Zhang

Would like it to be in that order but I would be happy to see him right any of them tbh.

 

Hearn floating the possibility of Joshua-Wilder again :

"You have got two things; the IBF title freeing up potentially and the allure of the Wilder fight. If Wilder comes through Zhang, which I believe he will, everyone is going to start talking about Joshua-Wilder again.

“That is definitely a fight that His Excellency likes, ‘AJ’ is up for that fight, he would of course love to win a heavyweight world title again, he would love to fight the winner of Fury-Usyk but at the moment nothing is locked in, because of all of the upcoming fights. We will see what spits out on May 18th and June 1st.”

 

Big credit to AJ if he actually goes through with it. Somehow got a feeling he'll try and fight Usyk a third time though.

 

None I'd say

 

Zhang has a history of getting tired but. will Wilder fight at a pace that tires Zhang out? or will they circle the ring looking to land big shots? with few punches thrown?