What Next For Anthony Joshua After Daniel Dubois Defeat

Outside of Daniel Dubois’ team and family, it was a foregone conclusion that his opponent and fellow Englishman, Anthony Joshua would beat the 26-year-old heavyweight and move on to bigger and better opportunities. What makes combat sports so great is that on any given Saturday, an underdog can rise to the occasion and pull off a major upset like we saw today in a ruckus at Wembley Stadium.

In much of the lead up to this massive event, Dubois was directly being overlooked by Joshua’s team, who were already looking towards a trilogy fight against Oleksandr Usyk, or, potentially the biggest fight in years, a Joshua vs Tyson Fury clash. All those dream fights must wait on the back burner for the time being as ‘AJ’ must go back to the drawing board again and figure out what’s next for the heavyweight star.

What’s Next For Anthony Joshua

Boxing record: 28-4, Knockouts: 25, Best win: Wladimir Klitscko

Because of the reach of Joshua’s brand, a major loss like the one he just suffered at the hands of Dubois will affect his climb back to the top of the mountain much less than other lesser known fighters. With a dominant win in his next time out, ‘AJ’ would be right back in the mix for fighting for a heavyweight world championship. The only question that remains is who’s next for Matchroom boxing’s most prominent fighter?

With Deontay Wilder teasing that he isn’t quite ready to hang up the gloves following his recent knockout loss, that fight would be a meeting of two sluggers that any fight fan would tune into watch. Another potential opponent for Joshua could be Zhilei Zhang. Both of the aforementioned fights are competitive fights for the Briton heavyweight, but what’s most likely to happen is a rematch with Dubois. History tells us that when Joshua loses a high-profile fight he wants to immediately run it back. Expecting Dubois-Joshua 2 sometime in Q2 of 2025.

Anthony Joshua Has Bounced Back Before

The story isn’t over for one of boxing’s biggest stars

Before getting stopped in the fifth round by Dubois, Joshua was on his longest winning streak (4) in over five years. The last time he’d tasted defeat was at the hands of Usyk. A few years before that, Joshua was on the short end of a major upset loss to Andy Ruiz Jr. Regardless of the manner

Joshua will likely run it back against Dubois, and with a more focused approach, he will be able to beat his younger counterpart and re-assert himself as an elite heavyweight. While Dubois and his promoter, Frank Warren, are already pushing for a rematch against Usyk for their next fight, it’s more probable that a second crack at Joshua awaits. On the other hand, Eddie Hearn is already laying the groundwork for a rematch in 2025 when addressing the media in the post-fight press conference: