Anthony Joshua believes the heavyweight division is as strong as ever… and admits he WILL fight fellow Brit Daniel Dubois down the line
AJ says the division is still tasty as people want to knock him out as much as he wants to knock them out as he looks to unify all the belts
ANTHONY JOSHUA is not worried by the shortage of heavyweight contenders because he can have a great fight with ANYONE.
The IBF and WBA champion defends his titles against Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on October 28 — before looking ahead to unification fights next year.
WBC king Deontay Wilder and Joseph Parker, who retained his WBO belt against Hughie Fury last month, are on his radar. But beyond that, there is a distinct lack of big names.
Muhammad Ali faced all-time greats like George Foreman, Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, while Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis fought each other in the 1990s, another golden heavyweight decade.
But talk that Joshua’s legacy will suffer because he does not have to prove himself during a similarly star-studded era does not wash with undefeated AJ.
He said: “If I fight Joe Bloggs, the bookies may not have put him in a position to beat me.
“But he could end up putting up one hell of a fight that takes his stock up and it creates that type of Ali-Frazier, that trilogy.
“You have to remember Frazier was a gold medallist, Ali, Foreman, they were all peak-level fighters of the era and they all ended up fighting each other.
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“People might say Pulev is an easy fight.
“But he might come and put me in a place I haven’t been before, it might be a barnstorming fight.
“People just want to see who’s going to be the man to beat me. That’s what people come out for — to see me knock someone out cold or to see them knock me out.”
The 2012 Olympic champion, 27, also believes that his path will undoubtedly cross with the man dubbed ‘The New AJ’, Daniel Dubois.
The 20-year-old has kicked off his career with five quick knockouts.
And promoter Frank Warren is bullish about his prospect and claims he is the hardest-punching British heavyweight of the past 30 years.
Joshua said of Dubois: “He’ll be a player among the rest and I will fight him at some stage when he moves up.
“But he’s a long way off. If a fighter wants a sprint, he can go all guns blazing, but they don’t last long.”
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