Eddie Hearn expects Anthony Joshua to next fight in August or September.

The former world heavyweight champion stopped Francis Ngannou in March, and in so doing was installed as the next challenger to the winner of the two undisputed heavyweight title fights between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.

Fury-Usyk has been scheduled for May 18 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but a potential second fight between them would be unlikely before late 2024.

Following successive defeats by Usyk, Joshua’s reputation has been rebuilt with four victories in under a year, and he is therefore keen to remain active and, his promoter believes, if Fury and Usyk enter a rematch, he will likely do so by fighting the winner of the fight on June 1 between Filip Hrgovic and Daniel Dubois.

“The fact he’s had four fights in 11 months – that’s a lot of training camps,” said Matchroom’s Hearn. “Every training camp is 10 weeks, so he’s done 40 weeks in 11 months. He probably would like to fight in July, but I think it will be more like August; September. He had a meeting the other day with myself and His Excellency, and they want to wait and see what happens on May 18th.

“His Excellency said we’ll wait and see what happens May 18th. But it’s gonna be difficult [for Fury and Usyk to have a rematch] – if Fury wins, the demand for him to fight ‘AJ’ will be out of control. But they do have a two-fight deal.

“Probably the winner of [Filip] Hrgovic-[Daniel] Dubois. Or the winner of Fury-Usyk. We understand they have a two-fight agreement. The aim now, really, is to fight for a world title. That’s really what he wants to do.”

Joshua could yet do so against either fighter, given the potential for Hrgovic and Dubois to contest the IBF title.

Hearn was then asked if, should Dubois win, a fight between London’s two leading heavyweights would take place in Saudi Arabia, and he responded: “Possibly. Obviously His Excellency’s said that he wants to do a show at Wembley, but there’s been no discussions yet about who’s going to be headlining that.”