NEWS: BARRY HEARN CLAIMS ANTHONY JOSHUA-TYSON FURY 'NEEDS TO HAPPEN' IN 2023

By: Jay Calderon

Recently, Matchroom founder Barry Hearn spoke with Sky Sports, and discussed former Heavyweight titlist Anthony Joshua's future.

Since September of 2021, things haven't gone according to plan for the Londoner. In that time between then and now, Joshua lost his gold to currrent world champion Oleksandr Usyk, then failed to recapture the crown in August of this year.

Now, this coming year appears to be a pivotal one in the career of AJ. Hearn, expressing that the 33-year-old "can't afford another loss", believes Joshua has a lot on the line in the coming twelve months.

Of course, one of the biggest fights, despite Joshua's recent form, would be against countryman and current titlist Tyson Fury.

Fury seems poised to take on the aforementioned Usyk in a unification bout in 2023. Provided Fury is to defeat Usyk in the first half of the year, Hearn feels the elusive Fury-Joshua encounter may happen towards the end of the coming year.

As recently as the last few months, both sides have tried to make Fury-Joshua. While both sides will tell you the other is the blame, the fact is the fight hasn't been made. While Hearn knows other fights have been mentioned, the fight that Barry feels needs to happen is Fury-Joshua.

"...You'll get stories, Tyson will say the fight is never going to happen, Joshua will say he'd rather fight Dillian Whyte. Forget all of that. This fight has to happen, and I think it does happen at the tail-end of 2023, for all the marbles," Barry expressed.

While Hearn seemed to dismiss the Whyte encounter, that could be a reasonable pathway to the Fury showdown.

Joshua needs a confidence booster if he's to head into one of the biggest fights of his career. The Fury fight could be Joshua's last real shot at the top spot. Naturally, you would imagine Joshua needs a winnable fight that can set him up for the best chance at success.

It also makes sense in terms of activity. Joshua would presumably want at least one more fight between the second loss to Usyk in the summer and the end of 2023. And at least Joshua-Whyte 2 would still be a bankable fight that serves the purpose of keeping Anthony busy and potentially getting him back into the win column.

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