{"id":289979,"date":"2023-09-25T15:20:26","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T15:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=289979"},"modified":"2023-09-25T15:20:26","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T15:20:26","slug":"eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn admits he is open to Anthony Joshua fighting Zhilei Zhang"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Eddie Hearn admits he is &#8216;absolutely&#8217; open to Anthony Joshua fighting Zhilei Zhang in China after his third round knockout of Joe Joyce<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><span>Eddie Hearn open to a fight between Anthony Joshua and Zhilei Zhang in China<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Zhang was victorious on Saturday night with third round KO over Joe Joyce\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Mail Sport&#8217;s new WhatsApp Channel: Get the breaking news and exclusives here<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Eddie Hearn says he&#8217;d be open to an Anthony Joshua and Zhilei Zhang fight in China if the money was right, even though the focus is still on firming up a meeting between Joshua and Deontay Wilder.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Zhang was victorious over Joe Joyce on Saturday night, with a third round knockout over the British fighter, which could possibly put an end to Joyce&#8217;s career.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Attention now turns to who the WBO interim champion would face next and Heard hasn&#8217;t dismissed the possibility of Zhang fighting Joshua.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Asked about a meeting of the two fighters, Hearn told iFL TV that it&#8217;s something that could happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Yeah absolutely,&#8217; he said.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/25\/14\/75812529-12558205-image-a-81_1695650395630.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Eddie Hearn has hinted he&#8217;d be open to a Anthony Joshua fighter with Zhilei Zhang in China\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/25\/14\/75812561-12558205-image-a-82_1695650398705.jpg\" height=\"428\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Anthony Joshua&#8217;s next fight could be against Zhang although the focus is on Deontay Wilder\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/25\/15\/75812601-12558205-image-a-83_1695650422483.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Zhang retained his WBO interim championship with a third round knockout of Joe Joyce\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;AJ\u2019s always fancied that fight. He beat him in the amateurs. It was a good fight.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We want to make the Wilder fight, but Zhang is an easier fight. Why not?&#8217;\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hearn went on to confirm he&#8217;d be happy to do the fight in China because &#8216;money talks&#8217; or at Wembley.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Joshua fought Zhang at the 2012 Olympics, and beat the Chinaman 15-11 in the quarter-finals of the games on route to winning a gold medal at the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A decade on, there would be interest in another meeting between the pair, even if Hearn doesn&#8217;t believe that Zhang is an elite heavyweight at this current time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cZhilei Zhang is a good fighter. He\u2019s not an elite heavyweight, in my opinion, but he\u2019s a world-class heavyweight,&#8217; he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/25\/15\/75812877-12558205-image-a-85_1695650980102.jpg\" height=\"422\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Joshua and Zhang met at the 2012 Olympics during AJ&#8217;s run to winning the gold medal\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/25\/15\/75812785-12558205-image-a-84_1695650741181.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>After beating Joyce on Saturday Zhang has also set his sights on a fight with Tyson Fury\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;When I say &#8220;Elite,&#8221; I\u2019m talking, like top three, four, or five in the division. No, not really. I think there\u2019s an argument he could creep into number five, but he\u2019s a lovely man.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While a fight with Joshua could be put in motion, it seems Zhang has his sights set on another Brit in Tyson Fury.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Following his victory at the weekend, the 40-year-old took to a mic while be interviewed by TNT\u00a0Sports and asked the crowd\u00a0&#8216;Do you want to see me shut Tyson Fury up?!&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He later reiterated in interviews after the fight his desire to stop Fury from running his mouth and stated\u00a0&#8216;We&#8217;re boxers. We fight we don&#8217;t talk. Tyson Fury talks too much.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/article-12558205\/Eddie-Hearn-admits-absolutely-open-Anthony-Joshua-fighting-Zhilei-Zhang-China-round-knockout-Joe-Joyce.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Eddie Hearn admits he is &#8216;absolutely&#8217; open to Anthony Joshua fighting Zhilei Zhang in China after his third round knockout of Joe Joyce Eddie Hearn <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/\" title=\"Eddie Hearn admits he is open to Anthony Joshua fighting Zhilei Zhang\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-289979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boxing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Eddie Hearn admits he is open to Anthony Joshua fighting Zhilei Zhang - Sportstoft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eddie Hearn admits he is open to Anthony Joshua fighting Zhilei Zhang - Sportstoft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Eddie Hearn admits he is &#8216;absolutely&#8217; open to Anthony Joshua fighting Zhilei Zhang in China after his third round knockout of Joe Joyce Eddie Hearn [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sportstoft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-25T15:20:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeanette\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeanette\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/\",\"name\":\"Eddie Hearn admits he is open to Anthony Joshua fighting Zhilei Zhang - Sportstoft\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Eddie-Hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-Anthony-Joshua-fighting-Zhilei-Zhang.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-25T15:20:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-25T15:20:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Eddie-Hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-Anthony-Joshua-fighting-Zhilei-Zhang.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Eddie-Hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-Anthony-Joshua-fighting-Zhilei-Zhang.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":675},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Boxing\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/category\/boxing\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Eddie Hearn admits he is open to Anthony Joshua fighting Zhilei Zhang\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/\",\"name\":\"Sportstoft\",\"description\":\"sportstoft.com\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609\",\"name\":\"Jeanette\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7cef2e0d8d634cb49d54f7c48b549a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7cef2e0d8d634cb49d54f7c48b549a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeanette\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Eddie Hearn admits he is open to Anthony Joshua fighting Zhilei Zhang - Sportstoft","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Eddie Hearn admits he is open to Anthony Joshua fighting Zhilei Zhang - Sportstoft","og_description":"Eddie Hearn admits he is &#8216;absolutely&#8217; open to Anthony Joshua fighting Zhilei Zhang in China after his third round knockout of Joe Joyce Eddie Hearn [...]","og_url":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/","og_site_name":"Sportstoft","article_published_time":"2023-09-25T15:20:26+00:00","author":"Jeanette","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeanette","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/","url":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/","name":"Eddie Hearn admits he is open to Anthony Joshua fighting Zhilei Zhang - Sportstoft","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Eddie-Hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-Anthony-Joshua-fighting-Zhilei-Zhang.jpg","datePublished":"2023-09-25T15:20:26+00:00","dateModified":"2023-09-25T15:20:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Eddie-Hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-Anthony-Joshua-fighting-Zhilei-Zhang.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Eddie-Hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-Anthony-Joshua-fighting-Zhilei-Zhang.jpg","width":1200,"height":675},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/eddie-hearn-admits-he-is-open-to-anthony-joshua-fighting-zhilei-zhang\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Boxing","item":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/category\/boxing\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Eddie Hearn admits he is open to Anthony Joshua fighting Zhilei Zhang"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/","name":"Sportstoft","description":"sportstoft.com","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609","name":"Jeanette","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7cef2e0d8d634cb49d54f7c48b549a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7cef2e0d8d634cb49d54f7c48b549a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jeanette"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}