Eddie Hearn has cooled down talk of Anthony Joshua returning to the ring in July.

The heavyweight last competed in a six-round dismantling of YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in Miami, Florida back in December. Joshua was riding high after a dominant win that reportedly aired to more than 30 million homes on Netflix, only for his life to then take a horrifying turn. The former two-time heavyweight champion enjoyed some downtime in Nigeria following his big win with friends Latif Ayodele and Sina Ghami – who were also part of Team ‘AJ’. Tragedy struck the vacation when the three men were passengers in a vehicle that collided with a stationary lorry, killing both Ayodele and Ghami. Joshua walked away with only minor physical injuries.

Hearn, Joshua’s promoter and long-term friend, spoke to BoxingScene last week after Joshua had been posting videos in the weeks prior of him punching mitts in the Middle East, where he resides. Hearn revealed that Joshua was likely to return to camp in the next few weeks and that he had begun planning for a return date in July. News of Joshua’s return spread across social media, but Hearn has now cooled down speculation of a Summer clash for the heavyweight.

“I think that he's thinking about going back to camp. I don't think he's thinking about fighting right now,” Hearn told BoxingScene. “He's just thinking about at some point returning to training camp because I think he likes doing that, and I think that's going to give him the answers as to if and when [he returns]. So, I think there's a chance in the next two or three weeks he could be preparing to go back into training and only then will we have the conversations about what's realistic time-wise and opponent-wise and that's why we said July-ish time could be a potential return. 

“No decisions made yet, I've seen it's gone everywhere since I said that, and all I said was he's going to go back into training camp and potentially could return in July. But he could go back into training camp and not be ready to go back into training camp, or go and fight at the end of the year or might not fight at all. So, I think training camp is a good place for him because it's a place where he feels very happy and motivated, and hopefully physically he'll feel like he's ready to return soon.”