Just days before his bout against Carlos Takam in Cardiff, Anthony Joshua is already looking ahead to next year and the chance to unify the heavyweight division.
The WBA and IBF titleholder has revealed he’s lining up three fights next year – and has WBC champion Deontay Wilder and WBO belt holder Joseph Parker in his sights. According to The Times, the third fight would be a mandatory WBA defence.
Mike Tyson was the last undisputed heavyweight boxing champion and Joshua says that potential unification battles against Wilder and Parker are on his agenda, providing he beats Takam in Wales at the weekend.
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Joshua told the Times: “I think we’ll be fighting Wilder and Parker in 2018. They’re very keen to come to the UK.”
Promoter Eddie Hearn confirmed to the Daily Telegraph that the Joshua camp wants “three massive fights” next year.
Hearn said: “3 February is a potential date, at the O2, against Parker for the WBO belt, or if that doesn’t work out, so too is a fight in the Middle East in the first quarter. Wilder is a target as well, in a summer fight. But we are also offering Wilder that 3 February date at the O2 Arena against Dillian Whyte.”
In a separate interview with the Times, Hearn said: “He’s [Joshua] in a position where he gets to call the shots but at the same time we want to win all the belts.
“Providing everything is OK, the aim is to fight three times next year. We’ve only boxed twice this year, which has worked out OK because the [Wladimir] Klitschko fight was huge.
He added that “in a perfect world,” two of the three fights would be for the additional belts “in any order”.
Meanwhile, former heavyweight legend Larry Holmes says that even in his prime Tyson would get knocked out by Joshua.
At 6ft 6in tall, Joshua would not have had a problem against 5ft 10in “Iron” Mike.
“If he fought a guy like Mike Tyson, he’d win,” Holmes told the Daily Express. “He would have knocked out a prime Mike Tyson. There’s no reckon about it.
“Mike Tyson went down low and then came up and tried to throw roundhouses. But Joshua would just hit him with a straight right hand on the side of his damn chin and Mike wouldn’t get up.”
