Anthony Joshua will not be returning to the ring any time soon, his promoter Eddie Hearn has revealed.
Hearn has been plotting Joshua’s comeback after a fifth round defeat to Daniel Dubois last September, but confirmed on Wednesday that he won’t be able to start punching again for another eight weeks.
The Matchroom Chairman did not divulge details of the injury, but anticipated that the two-time heavyweight world champion would be back in August at the earliest.
“He’s not really ready to start camp,” Hearn told IFLTV.
“He needs another eight weeks or so on his injury.
“He had a little bit of a setback and he won’t be punching for about that period of time.
“You’re looking at kind of end of May for camp.
“So you’re looking at the back end of the summer to fight again, August or September.”
Hearn has made no secret that the Watford man is targeting either a rematch with Dubois or a long-awaited clash with Tyson Fury, although the Morecambe man seemed to put paid to a showdown after announcing his retirement in January after back-to-back losses to Oleksandr Usyk.
‘AJ’ was ringside in February to witness Joseph Parker’s two round demolition of Martin Bakole, who stepped in at two days’ notice after Dubois withdrew through illness.
“Until he’s physically ready we’re not in any tearing rush,” Hearn added.
“There’s only really two fights that he’s really locked in for and that’s Dubois and Fury.
View this post on Instagram
“At the moment the Fury fight doesn’t look [likely].
“But we can’t really start planning too much until we know he’s fully ready to resume training.
“It was a minor setback, but he’s got to be physically right.
“It’s an injury he’s had for a while and [he] resumed training and [he’s] just not ready to start camp in full until it’s 100% which it’s not.”
