Anthony Joshua confirms Deontay Wilder will be his next fight

Anthony Joshua has confirmed that his next opponent will be fellow former world heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, with the pair set to meet in December.

Joshua was most recently in action earlier this month, as he defeated Jermaine Franklin in a very uninspiring decision victory after 12 rounds.

Having lost back-to-back fights with Oleksandr Usyk, fans wanted more from the former world champion, with simply getting back to winning ways not good enough.

He called out Tyson Fury after the fight but Eddie Hearn then turned the mood down for boxing fans by revealing that Dillian Whyte was next, and it wouldn't even be the summer date that AJ fans had wanted.

However, better news came in the speculation that Usyk would finally fight Fury on the same night that Joshua would fight Wilder.

Now it looks like we could be halfway to that supercard, with the 2012 Olympic gold medal winner, in the super-heavyweight division, revealing to fans he will be fighting the Bronze Bomber next, as you can see below.

"You gonna beat Wilder?" he was asked by a fan.

"That's what's happening," the British heavyweight replied, "You know what's going on."

The 33-year-old smiles and nods, as the fan asks about the news that he obviously already knows, adding, "It's public news, bruv, we're getting it down, in December."

"You better get that W," the fan replies.

"God willing," says AJ, who certainly needs the next victory to have any shot of one day becoming a three time world champion.

Wilder, the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist, won the WBC version of the world title in January 2015, with his rival winning his IBF belt in April 2016.

Wilder held the WBC title. Image: Alamy

The two men both were both world champions at the same time for over three years, until Joshua lost his first fight to Andy Ruiz in June 2019.

Whilst he won the titles back against the Mexican a few months later, it was his American contemporaries turn to lose his belt in February 2020 to Fury.

The Alabama native was also at the heart of Joshua not getting to fight Fury, as he called for his rematch, and the third installment, of the series with the Gypsy King.

He also lost that fight but has since defeated Robert Helenius, the former champ has since been ordered by the WBC to fight Ruiz in a title eliminator.

Topics: Boxing, Heavyweight Boxing, Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a journalist for SPORTbible with over eight years of experience. Passionate about all sports, he mainly covers football and F1 - Daniel Ricciardo once spent an entire interview referring to him as 'Ryan Gosling,' still his proudest moment.

@Sidler28