Promoter Eddie Hearn maintains that Anthony Joshua will likely have two fights in the next six months or so.

In a recent interview, the Matchroom head suggested that the former heavyweight titlist from London could return to the ring by December or January against an unnamed opponent.

Hearn also sounded optimistic that Joshua could potentially fight Deontay Wilder next spring, as late as April.

Talk of a Joshua vs. Wilder fight has gone on for the past year but the match-up took a blow after it became clear that backers in Saudi Arabia were unable to come up with the necessary funds to stage that fight in the region.

Hearn has continually maintained that he and Wilder’s advisor, Shelly Finkel, are fielding potential offers from other countries.

“He wants to, he really wants to,” Hearn said of Joshua in an interview with iFL TV. “We’ve been on calls with him all week. There’s a lot happening with the IBF situation. We’ll have to see. I think he’s going to fight in December or January.

“I think the Wilder fight, realistically, is not going to happen until March or April, at the latest. But he wants to fight. He wants to go back to camp and asked us to try and make him a fight for December, whether that spills into January we’ll see.”

Hearn mentioned the possibility of Joshua fighting the IBF No. 1 contender, Filip Hrgovic, in the event that the IBF title becomes vacant. But that possibility has dimmed since the IBF recently declared Otto Wallin as the No. 2 contender for the heavyweight belt. Joshua sits at No. 3.

While Hearn has been sanguine about making Wilder-Joshua, despite the Saudi Arabia fallout, his optimism is not shared by all involved parties. Wilder’s trainer, Malik Scott, recently poured water over a Wilder-Hearn match-up, saying Joshua has not publicly clamored for the fight enough.

One-time world title holder Andy Ruiz Jr has given his prediction on what would happen should his former opponent Anthony Johsua take on China’s Zhilei Zhang.

Ruiz and Joshua fought twice, the first time back in June 2019 when the Mexican was a late stand-in opponent for Jarell Miller who had failed a drug test in the lead up to the fight in New York. Ruiz knocked Joshua down four times on his way to a 7th-round stoppage win to lift the IBF, WBO and WBA titles.

The rematch came later that year when Joshua boxed a much more disciplined fight, kept at range and won a lopsided 12-round points decision.

Since then Ruiz has fought only twice, taking two unanimous points wins over Chris Arreola and Luis Ortiz, and has been chasing a fight with Deontay Wilder.

In that time, ‘Big Bang’ Zhang has very much got himself into the world heavyweight picture with two impressive wins over Brit Joe Joyce this year.

The first time, his solid left hand damaged Joyce’s eye so badly that the fight had to be stopped, and the second time he knocked ‘The Juggernaut’ out clean in the third round.

Since then he has continued to call out Tyson Fury but also retained his mandatory WBO status so could well fight the winner of Oleksandr Usyk versus Fury next.

Speaking to ESNews, Ruiz was asked what would happen between Zhang and his two-time opponent, ‘AJ.’

Both teams say they are open to the fight, but it doesn’t seem to be high up the list of Joshua’s team. Instead, he continues to pursue Deontay Wilder. It’s a fight Ruiz wants too.

As for Zhang, he wants as big a name as possible.