It might not be the fight that Anthony Joshua necessarily wants next, but Eddie Hearn says it's official nonetheless.
Hearn told DAZN's Chris Mannix on Friday that Joshua will be fighting Kubrat Pulev, one of his mandatory challengers, on June 20. While the fight hasn't been formally announced, including details about its location, Hearn had previously revealed that Joshua wanted to defend his unified world heavyweight championship back at home in London next.
That being said, the fact that Pulev, like Tyson Fury, is promoted by Top Rank's Bob Arum, has Hearn optimistic that some kind of step-aside deal could be made, so that Fury skips his trilogy fight with Deontay Wilder and Joshua bypasses Pulev to make it a Joshua-Fury fight for undisputed glory, instead. Standing in the way, though, is Wilder. After suffering a seventh-round TKO loss to Fury, Wilder said that he wants a rematch with Fury to get his WBC title back. Fury also stated that he'd be willing to give Wilder that rematch.
Whether Joshua vs. Fury happens sooner than later, Hearn called the clash "inevitable."
"We just recently closed a couple of minutes ago, the Pulev-(Joshua) fight for June 20, but we know that Pulev is also promoted by Bob Arum, so there is a deal that can be worked there," Hearn told DAZN on Friday. "If there's no step aside, let Fury and Wilder go again in July, we'll box on June 20 and then we can agree now, we can sign now for the undisputed fight in December of this year."
The 30-year-old Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs) regained his unified heavyweight crown with a unanimous decision win over Andy Ruiz Jr. in December. Pulev (28-1, 14 KOs) has won eight straight fights since suffering his only pro loss, a November 2014 KO to Wladimir Klitschko. Last year, the 38-year-old Pulev defeated Bogdan Dinu by KO in March and Rydell Booker via unanimous decision in November. Joshua's other mandatory challenger is Oleksandr Usyk.