Promoter Eddie Hearn says Anthony Joshua will fight just “once” in 2025, likely by September.” Hearn states that they’re waiting to see if Tyson Fury will end his retirement to come back for a fight againt AJ. He believes that Fury is still in his prime at 36, despite his aged look and three consecutive abysmal performances.
Joshua’s Single 2025 Fight Plan
If ‘The Gypsy King’ Fury stays retired, Hearn says they’re interested in Joshua fighting Daniel Dubois if he gets through his his undisputed championship fight against Oleksandr Usyk on July 19th.
Dubois humiliated AJ last September, destroying him in five rounds at Wembley Stadium. However, Hearn states that Fury remains the top priority. If he comes out of retirement, they’ll take that one.
Hearn Awaits Fury Decision
“He’ll only fight once this year. He’ll be good to go in the middle of September. And by then, we’ll know for sure if Fury is going to return or not,” said promoter Eddie Hearn to ESPN about Anthony Joshua.
AJ is coming off elbow surgery, so he’s not going to be able to get two fights in this year. Perhaps that’s a good thing for him, because the fans would expect him to fight quality opposition. He’s not capable of beating killers like Agit Kabayel, Filip Hrgovic, or even the inexperienced novice Moses Itauma.
Fans view Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) as past it, and many of them have lost interest in seeing him fight anyone. The sentimental boxing fans who remembered Joshua from what he’d done earlier in his career over a decade ago might still be interested in watching him. The rest of the fans see him as an over-the-hill fighter.
“I just don’t think he’ll be able to leave it alone. You know why? Because he’s not declining. He’s still at the peak of his powers,” said Hearn about Fury. “It’s very difficult to walk away from a fight like Anthony Joshua when you’ve still got it.”
Fury: A Shadow of His Former Self
I can’t believe for a second that Hearn is serious about Fury not showing signs of decline. He looks 100% faded, a wasted shell of what he’d been 10 years ago when he pulled off an upset againt 39-year-old Wladimir Klitschko in 2015. Anyone can see that Tyson has nothing left in his game. Blame it on genetics or a sedentary lifestyle. I see it as a combination of both, because he’s filthy rich with a net worth approaching $200 million, and he eats well in between fights.
Fury’s controversial win over former UFC fighter Francis Ngannou showed that he’s shot. He should have been able to destroy that fighter if he still had anything left, but instead, he lost and was given a controversial 10-round split decision win in 2023.
Hearn has done a good job over the last four years of keeping Anthony’s career going by putting him in a four-fight rebuild job against lower-level opposition following his back-to-back defeats against Oleksandr Usyk. However, once Joshua was put back in against his first live opponent, Daniel Dubois, he was obliterated. DDD went through him like we were a speed bump in the road. That fight wasn’t even remotely close to being competitive.
There’s a lot more money for Joshua to get fighting Fury than Dubois. It’s a more winnable one for him. Tyson looked thoroughly washed in his last two fights againt Usyk, nearly getting knocked out in the first one in May 2024.
If not for the referee saving Fury with a bizarre standing eight count in the ninth round, he’d have been finished off for sure. In the Usyk-Fury rematch last December, Tyson looked lethargic, out of shape, and physically unable to do anything.
Last Updated on 05/28/2025
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