Anthony Joshua in talks to fight man who almost beat Tyson Fury with Deontay Wilder facing ex-champ in big double header

6 months ago 56

ANTHONY JOSHUA and Deontay Wilder are in talks with separate opponents to fight on the same card in Saudi Arabia.

The heavyweight superstars were lined up for a huge bout years in the making until Saudi backers pulled out.

So the two now face the prospect of returning in interim fights before negotiations can resume.

Boxing bosses in Saudi had planned for a massive event on December 23 between Tyson Fury, 35, and Oleksandr Usyk, 36.

But Fury was dropped and left fortunate to walk away with a controversial win over ex-UFC champion Francis Ngannou, 37, only eight weeks beforehand.

So the historic first four-belt heavyweight unification has been postponed until February.

However, the Saudis still want a show on December 23.

According to Dan Rafael, it could see Joshua, 34, and Wilder, 38, fight in individual bouts on the same card.

Reports from International Boxing News say AJ is in talks with former sparring partner Otto Wallin, 32.

Wallin famously gave Fury 47 stitches and almost scored a shock TKO victory before controversially losing on points.

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He is now lined up for an IBF interim title fight with Filip Hrgovic, 31, where the winner would face the Fury-Usyk winner or inherit the vacated belt.

So if Joshua were to beat Wallin it could force through an IBF title fight against Hrgovic.

Or, it could pave the way for a blockbuster with Wilder, who IBN claim is in talks with ex-WBO champion Joseph Parker, 31, who recently won on Fury’s Saudi undercard.