Eddie Hearn, the promoter of the famous British-Nigerian boxer, Anthony Joshua, has expressed hope of return of the ex-unified heavyweight champion to his glory days in the boxing world.
This was after his concession that Joshua had become a shadow of his former self in his boxing profession.
The two-time global champion is yet to recover from the aftermath of his defeats by Oleksandr Usyk of Ukraine.
As the British-Nigerian boxer returns to the ring on 1st April, in a heavyweight bout with his counterpart in America, Jermaine Franklin, at O2 Arena, it is expected that AJ will give a good account of himself under his new trainer.
Joshua’s promoter believes that his two consecutive loss to Oleksandr has negatively affected him commercially, as about 20,000 tickets were yet to be sold out less than a month to the match, unlike in previous times when about 90,000 capacity stadium was sold out twice.
Speaking with ESBR Boxing, he said: “He’s coming off two defeats, so of course you’re not going to be the same size commercially as you were when you beat Wladimir Klitschko in front of 90,000.
“But he’s a great fighter, he’s one of the best heavyweights in the world. I feel like he can still be the best heavyweight in the world.
“And it’s difficult times as well, yeah we’ve sold 14,000 tickets at the O2, we’ve got a couple of thousand left which will all go.
“The fighters get their tickets this week as well, so there’s not going to be many left.
“But, he needs to make a statement and he needs to get people excited about Anthony Joshua again.
“We all love him, the country loves him, but do they believe in him as a top heavyweight, April 1 we will see.”
His contender in the upcoming fight lost to Dillian Whyte, last year.
