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Eddie Hearn plans comeback world tour for Anthony Joshua after his defeat against Oleksandr Usyk with former heavyweight champion set to return for series of fights across the globe in bid to resurrect his boxing career
- Eddie Hearn is planning a comeback world tour for Anthony Joshua
- Hearn named London, Beijing, Australia, and the US among possible locations
- Joshua suffered a second successive loss to Oleksandr Usyk earlier this month
- The Olympic gold medallist launched into a bizarre tirade post-fight
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Matchroom boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has laid out his plans for the in-ring return of Anthony Joshua.
Joshua suffered the third defeat of his professional career in August, when he again found himself on the wrong side of a judges’ decision against Oleksandr Usyk in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Despite suggestions that AJ should consider moving away from the sport after a suffering successive defeats at the hands of the Ukrainian, Hearn stated that the Olympic gold medallist will make his return to the ring by the end of the year.
Eddie Hearn has revealed plans to undertake a boxing ‘world tour’ with Anthony Joshua
In an interview with iFL TV, Hearn further explained that Joshua’s return to title contendership will allow them more freedom in plotting his career going forward:
‘That’s the most exciting thing about moving forward [without the belts], is now he can be in charge of his own career and his own destiny. We can fight who we want, where we want, when we want, and be as active as we want whilst we’re building up to get AJ a shot at the world title again.
‘That should be the most exciting thing for his career now. A chance to actually be active, and again build a schedule. I want to build a world tour, I want to see AJ fight in London, in Beijing, in Australia, in the Middle East, in America, and it’s gonna be a lot of fun.’ He added.
Hearn named a number of possible locations for Joshua’s return to title contendership
The Matchroom Boxing promoter also defended Joshua’s comments following the Usyk fight
Though he remained coy about exactly which opponents Joshua would be matched up against during this run, Hearn named heavyweight contenders Dillian Whyte and Deontay Wilder as fighters that he would love to see the 32-year-old meet in the ring.
Hearn also spoke about Joshua’s controversial post-fight tirade after his loss to Usyk in Saudi Arabia:
‘If you watch back, the first thing that AJ did was go over, congratulate him, and hold up the Ukrainian flag up behind him when they were announcing the winner, so people forget about that.
‘Joshua has apologised for his actions. I’m not so sure whether he should, but he did. He probably feels he said some things that he shouldn’t have and reacted in ways that he shouldn’t have. But there was an incredible amount of emotion and frustration.’