Anthony Joshua 'very hard to talk out of' immediate Daniel Dubois rematch as Martin Bakole gets final eliminator

Anthony Joshua still wants an immediate rematch with Daniel Dubois.

Dubois smashed Joshua into defeat with a stunning fifth-round knockout in their IBF world heavyweight title fight at Wembley Stadium last month.

It was an astonishing upset that demolished the hopes of Joshua fighting the winner of the Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury rematch for the undisputed heavyweight world championship in 2025.

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But rather than wait to finally take on his great rival Fury, former champion Joshua could choose to face Dubois once again in his next fight, as soon as February.

Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn told Sky Sports: "My initial thought after the fight was let's just chill out, maybe wait for Fury-Usyk.

"AJ's reaction was quite a bit different. Obviously out of pride you always want to take the rematch. But it's a little bit more calculated than that.

"It's more like, well, what happens if Usyk-Fury doesn't happen? What if someone gets injured, and even if it does happen they're not going to fight again until July, August? Then I'm out the ring for nearly a year and I want to be active."

Joshua could always fight someone outside of that top three of Usyk, Fury and Dubois, with heavyweights like Deontay Wilder or Dillian Whyte under consideration.

But Hearn explained Joshua's current thinking, saying: "I want to win the world heavyweight title, and I've got a shot there to win the world heavyweight title in my hand.

"Obviously it's a dangerous fight but I can't box any worse than I did."

The promoter added that he "would expect the fighter to say I want the instant rematch" but Hearn insisted: "When you start actually thinking about it, I don't think there's a bad decision to make.

"I know that he is leaning towards the rematch because he wants to win the world heavyweight title. Versus fighting Wilder, waiting for Fury and then you've got all next year bubbling around not really fighting for the world heavyweight title."

Joshua isn't expected to have many more fights in his whole career. "It could be one, it could be five. If he beats Dubois, probably another two or three. If he loses to Dubois, he's in a real tough position," Hearn said.

"People keep saying the Fury fight's still there. But if they both keep losing? It will always be there but at the same time, at what value? That depends on how they do."

But Joshua is still likely to take that gamble.

"If it's solely down to AJ, which it will be at the end of the day," Hearn said, "I think it's going to be very hard to talk him out of taking the rematch."

Bakole sets Dubois collision course

Martin Bakole, who recently vanquished Jared Anderson, is also looking to force his way into world title contention.

The IBF have ordered a final eliminator for their heavyweight world championship between him and Agit Kabayel, the unbeaten German who has stopped both Aslanbek Makhmudov and Frank Sanchez in his most recent fights.

Winning that would place Bakole on a collision course with Dubois, the holder of the title.

"We love that fight. I think the only way we get it is by forcing it to happen. I don't think anyone that's got a world title would want to risk it against Martin Bakole," his promoter Ben Shalom told Sky Sports.

"So [he's] No 1 with the WBA, I think we're in the top five in every governing body, would also become mandatory with the IBF [if he beat Kabayel]. Soon there'll be nowhere to hide."

Bakole versus Kabayel could be staged before the end of this year.

"It's a fight that we've been talking about for a while, for me the two most avoided heavyweights in the world," Shalom said.

"The IBF are notorious for enforcing their mandatories so the best one for us to be involved in. We really fancy that fight.

"We're hoping we get it done for this year in December. We'll see what happens."

Fabio Wardley's huge rematch with Frazer Clarke is on the epic Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol bill on Saturday October 12 live on Sky Sports Box Office. Book Wardley vs Clarke 2 and Beterbiev vs Bivol now!

(c) Sky Sports 2024: Anthony Joshua 'very hard to talk out of' immediate Daniel Dubois rematch as Martin Bakole gets final eliminator