ANTHONY JOSHUA is set to fight Alexander Povetkin in September – which will delay his clash with Deontay Wilder until 2019.
It was hoped that IBF, WBA and WBO champion Joshua would face WBC king Wilder for all the belts before the year was out.
But it now seems as though their highly anticipated showdown will have to wait until February at the earliest.
Instead, AJ will take on mandatory challenger Povetkin in September before turning his attention to a big-money fight with Wilder.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn said: “At the moment, we are fighting Povetkin.
“We want to fight in September but September doesn’t work with Wilder because of [his broadcaster] Showtime.
“All I can is that I think the Wilder fight will get signed but it’s whether we fight Povetkin first.
“If Povetkin is September then Wilder probably won’t happen until February.
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“That would mean we would probably go to Cardiff to fight Wilder.”
Hearn also revealed that Joshua will take on Povetkin in a stadium with FOUR venues currently in the running to stage the clash.
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He added: “For September, Wembley is likely and so is the Olympic Stadium or Twickenham.
“The fight could be on the 15th or the 22nd of September but there is also the 8th which is available at Old Trafford.”
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