Joshua’s #1 priority to match Dubois again, says Eddie Hearn

Promoter Eddie Hearn insists a rematch with Daniel Dubois is the “#1 priority” for Anthony Joshua. He can easily make it happen by telling His Excellency Turki Alalshikh that’s the fight they want. It’s pretty clear that there won’t be a rematch.

(Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)

Hearn is so transparent in his talk that he doesn’t want to come right out and say it because the backlash will be severe. It will show extreme weakness if Joshua doesn’t take the rematch with Dubois, but if he does, all the money from the Fury fight goes out the window.

Hearn and Joshua still have a fight over the Riyadh Season deal, and they likely want to maximize it by making the mega-money clash against Fury.

A Dubois rematch won’t bring in the kind of golden gold that a match against Fury would, and it doesn’t matter if Usyk beats him. It’s still a bigger fight. If that’s all there is left for Joshua with His Excellency, Hearn is obviously going to get the maximum cash by pushing for the Fury bout.

“I told him yesterday: ‘You had one and three fights left.’ The phone went a little quiet when I told him that, but that’s the realization of where he is in his career. It will only be the biggest fights possible,” said Eddie Hearn Boxing News about his conversation with Anthony Joshua after his loss to Daniel Dubois.

Joshua talks about having “Loads” of years left in his career, so Hearn telling him that he only has one to three fights left probably didn’t go well.

“AJ is going to want the biggest fights. He is a fighter. His #1 priority is to re-evaluate Daniel Dubois. If we go to His Excellency and say, ‘We want that rematch.’ That battle will happen, but we also have options within our arrangement. The rematch is one of our options with His Excellency,” Hearn said.

They’re not going to make the Dubois rematch in a million years. Even if there wasn’t a Fury out there, Hearn isn’t crazy enough to pull the trigger on a rematch and watch Joshua get devoured by top predator Dubois. Joshua was not built to compete against this kind of monster.

“I believe if it was the choice we would make, I saw Daniel last night; this is definitely a fight that is being discussed. But we need to talk to AJ to discuss the possible timings for his return. December 21st (Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk 2) is a big moment for us and a big moment for the heavyweight division. It’s just a matter of whether we make a decision before that fight,” says Hearn.