Eddie Hearn reveals Anthony Joshua vs Francis Ngannou winner will fight Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk victor

27/02/2024 12:20

Eddie Hearn has revealed that the winner of Anthony Joshua vs Francis Ngannou will face the victor of Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk’s undisputed showdown.

When Joshua and Ngannou square off on March 8 there will be more than just pride on the line.

A loss for AJ would be catastrophic for his career and would undo all of the hard work he has put in over the past year to claw his way back to the glamour division’s top table.

Joshua is well positioned with the IBF to fight for their world title against Filip Hrgovic should it be vacated by the winner of the four-belt shoot-out in favour of a rematch, as expected.

This appeared to be the most likely route for AJ to take in order to secure a fight against the winner of Fury vs Usyk, but he may not even need to take that risk.

According to Hearn, Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia‘s General Authority for Entertainment, is lining up a fight between the winner of Joshua’s upcoming clash with Ngannou against whoever emerges victorious from Fury and Usyk’s undisputed clash.

"His Excellency said the winner of this fight faces the winner of Fury-Usyk,” Hearn told the MMA Hour on Monday night.

“That is a dream chance for us because we chased that for so long.

“AJ is going to beat Francis Ngannou, and then he's going to beat the winner of Fury-Usyk, and he's going to become the undisputed heavyweight world champion.”

If Ngannou wins then he would follow in Vasiliy Lomachenko’s footsteps in securing a world title fight in only his second professional outing.

Unlike the Ukrainian slickster, he isn’t a decorated amateur boxer who has won gold medals at the Olympic Games and World Championships.

He is a former UFC heavyweight champion with no prior boxing experience who has established himself as a genuine contender in an entirely new sport.

Although he wasn’t able to beat Fury when they locked horns in October last year, the fight was so close that he has been given a second bite of the cherry against Joshua.

This fight will serve as a litmus test to decipher whether the Cameroonian puncher can truly hang with the upper echelons of the sport.

The narrative coming out of Fury-Ngannou was that the WBC champion had taken the MMA star too lightly, and so that is why the boxing novice was able to have so much success.

Joshua won’t be taking those chances.

"He's taking this fight like it's Tyson Fury times ten,” Hearn added.

“If you get beat, you get beaten by a fighter with a 0-1 record.”