This year, Anthony Joshua won’t be making a comeback. The former heavyweight champion of the WBA, IBF, and WBO has chosen to take a lengthier hiatus from the game.
Despite the cancellation of a scheduled bout with Tyson Fury earlier in the month, Joshua, 33, was still scheduled to appear in a fight on December 17.
However, it is now known that “AJ” will take the remainder of 2022 off. After suffering back-to-back losses to Oleksandr Usyk, Joshua is reorganizing.
He will carry on working out at the Finchley and District Amateur Boxing Club, where he first competed. But the idea of a battle this year has now been dropped. Joshua will use the time to rest while also giving his training group another thought.
After a shocking December matchup with Tyson Fury was called off, the former two-time unified heavyweight world champion is searching for a new foe.
Several seasoned dancers are vying to be AJ’s partner early next year, but Frank Warren, the head of Queensberry Promotions, is trying to get Joyce or Dubois the golden ticket.
He told Sky Sports: “Now I’m going to be able to start throwing Daniel Dubois at him and Joe [Joyce].”
Warren, however, doesn’t believe the Olympic gold medallist would accept fights with his surging heavyweights.
He said: “If he don’t fight one of them I think they’ll find it hard to sell anything and he can’t say, ‘Why should I do that?’.
“‘ll tell you why, he’ll become a mandatory.”
