Frank Warren believes that Anthony Joshua has some significant fights ahead of him—he is just not convinced that the recently defeated British superstar will necessarily get top billing in them.
Joshua came up short once more last month in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in his heavyweight title rematch with Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk, losing a split decision. Uysk retained his WBO, WBA, and IBF titles, which he wrested from Joshua in their first encounter last September at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
The head of UK-based Queensberry Promotions thinks a few of the heavyweight contenders in his stable would not only stand a good chance of defeating Joshua but also get the nod over him from a marketing standpoint.
Joe Joyce and Daniel Dubois, two of Warren’s fighters, would command “A-side” in a fight with Joshua, Warren says.
“There’s some good domestic fights, which are world level fights, for him (Joshua) here (UK),” Warren told SecondsOut.com. “There’s Joe Joyce. There’s Daniel Dubois. There’s some really good fights there to be made which I think the public would buy into. And I would make both of them (Joyce and Dubois) the favorite (over Joshua).
When it was pointed out that those fights would probably have to take place on DAZN, given Joshua’s contract with the streaming platform, Warren disagreed.
“They wouldn't, would they?” Warren said. “He’s (Joshua) the B-side of the card now. He’s not the A-side anymore. He’s the B-side. He’s the guy who’s lost three of his last five fights.”
Joshua and Joyce used to be sparring partners and both used to be members of the same amateur team.
Joyce is gearing up for his fight against former champion Joseph Parker on Sept. 24 at Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
After getting stopped by Joyce in the 10th round in 2020, Dubois reeled off three straight wins, his last one a fourth-round stoppage of Trevor Bryan to earn a secondary WBA heavyweight belt.
