Anthony Joshua has sustained a mysterious injury to the ‘top half of his body’ ahead of his return to action this summer.
Eddie Hearn told talkSPORT.com last month that the long-awaited all-British showdown with Tyson Fury and a rematch against Dubois are the two top options for his client while Joseph Parker, Deontay Wilder and Martin Bakole remain outsiders.
However, Joshua is unable to resume full training after picking up an injury that has left him ‘unable to punch properly’.
Hearn insists the issue will keep AJ out of camp for eight weeks, but wouldn’t reveal the exact injury he suffered.
“Top-half of his body, there you go,” he said when asked for further details.
“Nothing major but it means that he’s been returning to training and it’s not quite ready to turn back to camp.He needs about another eight weeks until he can punch properly, you’re looking at what, April-May till he can start camp properly so it leads us to the back end of the summer.”
A rematch with Dubois was initially planned for February but ‘niggles’ ruled Joshua out of the fight.
“AJ desperately wants revenge but the only issue is timing,” Hearn told the BBC earlier this year. There are always niggles and he had a few so physically it’s just a case of whether AJ is ready to do that.”
Before losing to Dubois, Joshua was riding a four-fight winning streak.
He bounced back from consecutive losses to Oleksandr Usyk in September 2021 and August 2022 to beat Jermaine Franklin and Robert Helenius in a pair of low-output affairs.
His tentative performances left a lot to be desired but he showed the AJ of old in spiteful stoppage wins over Otto Wallin and Francis Ngannou thereafter.
He entered the Dubois fight in his best form in years and was made the favourite by the bookies.However, his dream of becoming a three-time heavyweight world champion came crashing down when he was flattened by a dynamite right hand from Dubois in the fifth.
