ACCORDING to Eddie Hearn’s gut, the feeling is that Anthony Joshua will fight Alexander Povetkin, and not Deontay Wilder, later this summer.

The hope initially was that Joshua and Wilder would put their differences to one side, agree on a location, and get in the ring to contest the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO world heavyweight titles at some point between August and November. But that now looks unlikely.

Instead, by way of Plan B, it would seem Joshua, the WBA, IBF and WBO champion, is being ushered towards a fight with Povetkin, his WBA mandatory challenger, which means a date against WBC champion Wilder, the one the world wants to see, will now be lightly pencilled in for early next year.