A fight with the WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua is the biggest ticket in boxing and there’s no shortage of names in the mix for the latest release.
His promoter Eddie Hearn has pencilled in a date at Wembley for April 13 but an opponent hasn’t yet been found for his stable star, and a canny Hearn may look stateside and give ‘AJ’ his American debut instead of another fight on home soil.
“There’s radio silence from Wilder, Fury we’re talking, Dillian Whyte we’re talking,” Hearn told DAZN while in New York over the weekend.
“Part of me would love to see Joshua come to the States, you know Miller – he’s creeping into the top five right now, he’s making some noise in America.
“To be a global star at some point you have to fight in America and to see Joshua fill up Madison Square Garden with 21,000-22,000 people – that’s a real statement of intent for a world heavyweight champion, for a Brit especially.
“We will see what happens, I think you’ll get a decision next week.
“For me, if [Joshua] can’t get Wilder, Fury or Dillian, he must come to America and Jarrell will be at the front of that queue.
“Don’t be surprised to see Joshua in June against Big Baby Miller in this very building [Madison Square Garden].”
“He’s not Joshua’s first choice, but I know he’s ready. He believes he can beat Joshua," Hearn added. "For a unified heavyweight champion to come to New York and beat a New Yorker in his back yard is a hell of a statement.
“Joshua’s 100 per cent focus is to fight Deontay Wilder, if he doesn’t want it we’ll look at other options.”
Joshua and the big-talking Miller have had a few quite public run-ins in the past, and so a fight between the pair wouldn't be hard to sell.
A move to build the AJ brand with a first win on US soil, before then looking towards a money-spinning unification bout with Wilder at a later stage, could prove a more prudent move for the fighter in the longer term and would be another example of the sort of big picture planning that’s allowed Hearn to nurture his career so successfully to date.
