Anthony Joshua is set to return to the boxing ring on July 25th when he takes on Kristian Prenga in a Saudi-funded tune-up fight. With a win comes the long awaited showdown against fellow British boxing titan Tyson Fury. And then after that? Maybe a foray for “AJ” into MMA.
In a recent interview with The Ring, Joshua made it clear that he was considering a mixed martial arts bout, if only to be one of the few boxers to cross over into MMA after so many MMA fighters have crossed into boxing.
“Believe
me, I was thinking, why don’t I step over into one of their territories because they keep on coming to our territory,” Joshua said. “Obviously, this is big business. It’s big boxing, it’s heavyweight boxing. You are talking about the best in their chosen field. MMA, Kickboxing. These aren’t amateurs, these are actually experienced fighters. But it would be good if one of us went into that side and see how we get on over there.”
Interviewer Rick Reeno suggested there just wasn’t as much money to be made in MMA as boxing, but Joshua insisted that wouldn’t be the case if he was the one stepping into a cage.
“It’s big business then,” Joshua said. “MMA, kickboxing, or boxing. It can be done. I believe it should be done. I think that’ll be the next thing that we wanna see.”
While Joshua acknowledged there have been boxers who have tried MMA, like James Toney in his disastrous first round loss to Randy Couture in 2010, he still seemed intrigued by the idea of being the first major boxing superstar in their prime to attempt MMA.
“Those guys keep on coming over into our territory,” he repeated. “It’ll be interesting to see who the first one will be to cross over into their territory.”
Joshua isn’t the only elite heavyweight talking about this. Deontay Wilder has flirted with an MMA fight for a while. Oleksandr Usyk has been teasing a move to MMA for over a year now and even incorporated some MMA into his training. And as far as the money is concerned, it’s the UFC that doesn’t pay as well as boxing, not MMA as a whole.
There’s never been more big money floating around MMA as there is now with Most Valuable Promotions looking for their next whale event and Netflix willing to pay top dollar for needle mover fights.
But first, let’s concentrate. Joshua needs to beat Kristian Prenga and then fight Tyson Fury before we get on any of this sidequest business.
