Every now and again there is a British boxer that gains the admiration and following of the entire country. As a country I would say that we are the strongest we have ever been in terms or producing word class fighters. However we have not had a fighter that has captured the hearts of the entire UK since Ricky Hatton hung up his gloves. Yes we have had the capability of producing world champions for quite some time now but with his laid back and respectful personality Anthony Joshua has, he really has gained a strong following. Since Joshua retained his titles against Carlos Takam last month, everyone is wondering what is next for the WBA, IBO and IBF heavyweight champion of the world. There has been a lot of talk about different fights that Joshua is open to and below I have listed the potential fights and the reason they could happen.
Deontay Wilder
The fight that most people want to see would see AJ taking on a fighter with similar credibility. I have been talking with a good friend of mine and fellow boxing fanatic Matt Knouff and he believes that this is the biggest fight boxing has to offer at the moment whilst also being the fight boxing fans want to see. Like Joshua, Wilder is also undefeated and has an extremely impressive finish record, only going the distance once in January 2015 against Bermane Stiverne. Wilder is the current holder of the WBC World Heavyweight Title, a title Joshua wants on his journey to unifying the division. Wilder made a huge statement after flattening Stiverne in their rematch earlier this month and after the fight called out Joshua. Personally this is a fight I would like to see and I do believe Wilder can cause Joshua problems with his power. I would say though this is a fight I would love to see unifying the division, so putting this on the back burner until all belts are involved would be great.
Joseph Parker
A fight that is probably the most underwhelming of the options available to Joshua, with Parker retaining his WBO World Heavyweight title in a bore fest decision against Hughie Fury in September there has been a lot of pointers to the Joshua fight. In his own right Parker is undefeated also and at the age of 25 he has also achieved a lot so far in his career. Parker is the current defending WBO champion and this is a fight that Joshua will be looking to explore with his goal of unifying the division. I know this fight isn’t as exciting as the Wilder bout but I think this is the fight that has the most probability of happening next. Parker is definitely not a fighter to be underestimated and is tough, whether he can deal with Joshua’s power is yet to be seen but Joshua will need to take the fight seriously after having a somewhat lackadaisical approach to Takam.
Tyson Fury
The Gypsy King himself, not everybody’s cup of tea but you can’t deny that Fury has unprecedented talent for a heavyweight fighter. For his size he is extremely quick and probably the best technical boxer out of everyone mentioned in this article. After winning the belts from Wladimir Klitschko back in November 2015 it has been a hard time for Fury. Due to struggling with mental health and drug issues since his win we haven’t seen him fight since that date, we have however seen Fury’s weight balloon up by at least seven or eight stone. Because of this it is extremely unlikely Fury will be AJ’s next opponent but with Fury being undefeated and never actually losing his titles, it is a fight that writes itself and hopefully one we will see in the future.
