{"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":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - 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; 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