Anthony Joshua will return to boxing, still ‘open’ to Tyson Fury super fight

BOXING-US-PAUL-JOSHUA

YouTuber Logan Paul puts a medal around the neck of British boxer Anthony Joshua as he celebrates after defeating US boxer and influencer Jake Paul (off frame) in a non-title heavyweight bout at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida, on December 19, 2025. (Photo by Giorgio VIERA / AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images

Ryan Harkness breaks down daily mixed martial arts (MMA) news, providing unique context to stories that only 15 years of obsessing over the sport can provide, having worked for FOX Sports, Yahoo! Sports, UPROXX, MSN, Bleacher Report, HDNet and CagePotato, among others, before joining MMAmania.com in 2017.

Anthony Joshua will return to box again, according to his promoter Eddie Hearn.

Things were looking very good for “AJ” coming into the end of 2025. He’d just beaten the brakes off Jake Paul in a huge Netflix boxing match that put tens of millions of dollars into his pocket. And boxing power broker Turki Alalshikh had announced a two-fight plan with Joshua that would end with the long awaited Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua in 2026.

Unfortunately, everything changed on December 29th when Joshua narrowly survived a fatal car crash on a highway in Nigeria that killed two of his friends and teammates. For weeks there’s been questions about his ability to continue boxing, both physically and mentally.

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According to Joshua’s longtime promoter Eddie Hearn, “AJ” will indeed go on.

“Originally, the plan for AJ was for him to fight in March,” Hearn said during a Matchroom Boxing event press conference. “And then fight Tyson Fury in August. That’s not happening. He’s not fighting Tyson Fury next. He’s going to come back, I believe, late summer. But physically he’s not yet in a position to return to camp.”

“I’m planning, but he’s just resting and preparing,” Hearn added. “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.”

Prior to the accident the option being pushed towards Joshua was a showdown with Glory Kickboxing champion Rico Verhoeven. That could still be in consideration, but Hearn could also go with a more conventional lower-risk boxing warm-up opponent.

“I think every fight is dangerous, coming off what he’s come off,” Hearn said.

As for the superfight that is really what everyone is here for?

“We’re open to the Fury fight,” he insisted. “But probably more likely end of the year, maybe early 2027.”