That would be admirable of AJ if he insisted on fighting Wardley as a precursor to what Hearn calls ‘The Battle of Britain’ against the inactive 37-year-old Fury. It would give Joshua a chance to get a real fight before fighting ‘The Gypsy King’ in 2026 in the summer.
As it stands, Joshua will enter the Fury contest with his fight against former YouTuber Jake Paul as his only activity in a year and a half. That’s not the kind of preparation that the long-awaited British matchup needs.
To burn the memory of Joshua getting knocked out by Daniel Dubois out of the minds of fans, AJ needs to beat a talent like Wardley or at least fight him. Even if Joshua gets beaten, he’d be showing some courage that he’s willing to get on the battlefield against someone that he wouldn’t be a heavy favorite to defeat.
Against Wardley, AJ would likely be the underdog, which is fine. That’s what you need to build up the Fury fight. The Joshua-Fury fight is viewed by fans now as two rich old guys meeting up in an old-timer’s match-up with nothing at stake. Fans would argue that Wardley would beat Fury and Joshua, even on the same night.
The shots that Wardley hit Joseph Parker with last October are hard to imagine Tyson or Joshua taking them without getting knocked out quickly. Parker sustained a lot of punishment from Wardley. Many boxing fans believe the fight should have been stopped in round two, when Parker was hurt and taking nonstop punches from Fabio.
Parker spat out his mouthpiece, and the referee, Howard Foster, surprisingly stopped the action to have Parker’s corner wash off the mouthpiece and put it back in. Over 10 seconds elapsed. The timing came right when Parker looked like on the verge of being stopped. Those same punches from Wardley against Fury and Joshua would be difficult for them to take, given how they were coming without stop.
“That’s the world heavyweight title. That’s actually AJ’s preference over Tyson Fury,” said promoter Eddie Hearn to Boxing Social when asked about the possibility of Joshua fighting WBO heavyweight champion Fabio Wardley next. “AJ would love to win the world heavyweight title again.”
Joshua has the standing to get the fights he wants. If he told Turki Alalshikh he absolutely wanted to fight Wardley next, it’s hard not to see him give in to his request. He was willing to allow Terence Crawford fight Canelo Alvarez without even one fight at 168 to earn the title shot. Joshua has enough cache to tell Turki, ‘This is the way it’s going to be. I want Wardley or else, no Fury fight.’
“If they offered us the Fabio Wardley fight and then the Tyson Fury fight, AJ, I think, would have absolutely no problems taking that ASAP. But the size of the Fury fight, that’s what’s interesting to people and His Excellency. I don’t think His Excellency is going to come and offer us that fight [Wardey]. If so, we can fight for the world heavyweight championship, absolutely.”
It sounds like a cop out by Hearn, putting it on Turki to be the reason why Joshua wouldn’t fight Wardley first. I don’t know why but I believe if Turki gave the green light for Joshua to fight Wardley, Hearn would drag his feet, saying, ‘But, don’t you want the Battle of Britain?’
