NOTTINGHAM, England – Plans are in motion for Anthony Joshua’s return to the ring.

 

The former two-time heavyweight champion last fought in December, when in Miami, Florida he shook off 15 months of ring rust before violently stopping Jake Paul in the sixth round, and broke Paul’s jaw in the process.

 

Victory marked Joshua’s first in the US – he suffered a shock knockout defeat by Andy Ruiz Jnr in New York back in 2019 – and reached over 30 million homes on Netflix.

 

The plan was then for him to fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in the spring, but tragedy struck the heavyweight. Joshua was involved in a fatal car crash that killed two of his closest friends, Sina Ghami and Latif Ayodele, while on holiday in Nigeria. Joshua was lucky to survive the crash with minor injuries and, following the loss of two friends, boxing again was understandably not in the forefront of his mind.

 

There have been videos of Joshua over the past few weeks training in the Middle East where he resides, and his promoter and long-time friend Eddie Hearn was able to confirm that plans are being formulated for him to return in the summer.

 

“Originally the plan with ‘AJ’ was for him to fight in March and then fight Tyson Fury in August,” Hearn told BoxingScene. “That’s not happening. He’s not fighting Tyson Fury next. He’s going to come back, I believe, in late summer, but physically he’s not yet in a position to return to camp.

 

“So, I’m planning, but he’s just resting and preparing. So, for me, I’m looking at options to get him back in the ring in July time, but we’ll only know if that’s a real possibility when he returns to camp, which will hopefully be in the next couple of weeks or a month.”

 

Considering what Joshua has had to overcome, his opponent is not expected to be of the highest level. Hearn, however, revealed that they would be open to jumping straight in with Tyson Fury, who returns on April 11 against Arslanbek Makhmudov.

 

“I mean, I think every fight’s dangerous coming off what he’s come off, but, yeah, I think we’re open to the Tyson Fury fight, but probably that’s more likely end of the year – maybe early 2027,” Hearn said.

 

The man rumoured for Joshua’s originally planned bout in Riyadh was heavyweight kickboxer Rico Verhoeven. Hearn was asked if that fight could be revisited for Joshua’s fight in July, but he believes that Verhoeven could face unified champion Oleksandr Usyk instead.