Anthony Joshua “more than likely” to face Hrgovic-Dubois winner next, says Hearn

ANTHONY JOSHUA will have more than a keen eye on this Saturday night’s Queensberry vs. Matchroom 5 v 5 event in Saudi Arabia.

The two promotional juggernauts go head-to-head at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn battling for UK bragging rights. While inside the ring five fights take place across four weight classes.

Raymond Ford (M) defends his WBA Featherweight world title against Nick Ball (Q), Hamzah Sheeraz (Q) and Austin “Ammo” Williams (M) will thrown down at middleweight, Craig Richards (M) and Willy Hutchinson (Q) meet at different stages of their careers at light-heavyweight while at heavyweight Filip Hrgovic (M) and Daniel Dubois (Q) put their world title credentials on the line and Deontay Wilder (M) and Zhilei Zhang (Q) square-off with their careers at stake.

For Joshua a shot at the IBF Heavyweight world title could arrive in September against the winner of Hrgovic and Dubois. The belt is currently in the hands of Oleksandr Usyk after his enthralling victory against Tyson Fury on May 18 in Saudi Arabia. The Ukrainian is currently undisputed champion but could be stripped of his IBF title if he is unable to fulfil his mandatory. Usyk and his team have requested an exception from the sanctioning body allowing a contracted rematch with Fury to feature all four titles once again.

Hrgovic is the current mandatory challenger for the IBF strap and has been since 2022. Should the belt become vacant then the Croat or Dubois could face ‘AJ’ at Wembley Stadium in September.

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn spoke to Boxing News about the former unified champion’s next move.

“At the moment it looks like the rematch [Usyk-Fury 2] is gonna be exercised,” he said.

“If I’m Tyson Fury, I’m definitely looking to have that fight. AJ would love to fight Fury next, he’d love to fight Usyk next, but more than likely it will come from the winner of Hrgovic against Dubois next Saturday.

“Nothing’s confirmed yet. September is a date at Wembley that’s been mentioned by His Excellency [Turki Alalshikh]. We’ll sit down next week and look at the plans, but a lot of that card and a lot of other stuff that’s going on will be settled through the 5v5 on Saturday.”