Joshua can demand fights. He just isn’t
It would be admirable of AJ if he insists on fighting Wardley as a lead-up to what Hearn calls ‘The Battle of Britain’ against the inactive 37-year-old Fury. This would give Joshua a chance to get a real fight before he fights ‘The Gypsy King’ in the summer of 2026.
As it stands, Joshua will enter the Fury competition with his fight against former YouTuber Jake Paul as his only activity in a year and a half. This is not the kind of preparation that the long-awaited British game needs.
To burn the memory of Joshua being beaten by Daniel Dubois from the minds of fans, AJ needs to beat a talent like Wardley or at least fight him. Even if Joshua is beaten, he will show some courage in being willing to get on the battlefield against someone he wouldn’t be heavily favored to defeat.
Against Wardley, AJ will likely be the underdog, which is good. This is what you need to build the Fury fight. The Joshua-Fury fight is now viewed by fans as two rich old guys meeting in an old fashioned match with nothing on the line. Fans would argue that Wardley would beat Fury and Joshua, even on the same night.
Those shots would fold Joshua or Fury
The shots Wardley hit Joseph Parker with last October, it’s hard to imagine Tyson or Joshua taking them without getting knocked out quickly. Parker took a lot of punishment from Wardley. Many boxing fans believe the fight should have been stopped in round two, when Parker got hurt and took non-stop punches from Fabio.
Parker spit out his mouthpiece, and the referee, Howard Foster, surprisingly stopped the action to allow Parker’s corner to be rinsed off the mouthpiece and replaced. More than 10 seconds have passed. The timing came right when Parker looked like he was about to be stopped. Those same punches from Wardley against Fury and Joshua would be hard for them to take given how they came non-stop.
“It’s the world heavyweight title. It’s actually AJ’s preference over Tyson Fury,” said promoter Eddie Hearn. Box Social when asked about the possibility of Joshua fighting WBO heavyweight champion Fabio Wardley next. “AJ would love to win the world heavyweight title again.”
Joshua has the status to get the fights he wants. If he told Turki Alalshikh that he absolutely wants to fight Wardley next, it’s hard not to see him giving in to his request. He was willing to let Terence Crawford fight Canelo Alvarez without even one fight at 168 to earn the title shot. Joshua has enough cash to tell Turki: ‘This is how it’s going to be. I want Wardley or else no Fury fight.’
If AJ wanted Wardley, he would fight him
“If they offered us the Fabio Wardley fight and then the Tyson Fury fight, I think AJ would have absolutely no problem taking that as soon as possible. But the size of the Fury fight, that’s what’s interesting to people and His Excellency. I don’t think His Honor is going to come and offer us that fight (Wardey). If so, we can fight for the world heavyweight championship, absolutely.”
It sounds like a cop out by Hearn, who puts it on Turki to be the reason Joshua wouldn’t fight Wardley in the first place. I don’t know why, but I believe if Turki gave the green light for Joshua to fight Wardley, Hearn would drag his feet and say, ‘But don’t you want the Battle of Britain?’
