AJ is looking for alternatives to Deontay Wilder after the American blew their £100m super-fight deal
Joshua had beaten Otto Wallin, 32, in Saudi Arabia but moments beforehand Wilder lost to Joseph Parker, 31. So AJ's super-fight with the American former heavyweight champion has been KO'd for now. Joshua's promoter named ex-UFC champion Ngannou along with Filip Hrgovic, 31, and Zhilei Zhang, 40, as alternatives to Wilder. But Robert Garcia - formerly coach to AJ - slammed the idea of Ngannou facing Joshua.
Garcia told ESNEWS: "It’s an easy fight for Joshua. Those fights shouldn’t even be sanctioned. "Ngannou, fighting the heavyweight champion of the world, Fury, it shouldn’t have been sanctioned. "It’s a disrespect to boxing not to train one single day for that fight. It was embarrassing." Ngannou, 37, put on hold his MMA career this year to fight WBC champ Tyson Fury, 35, in Saudi Arabia in October.
He astonishingly dropped Fury only to be controversially beaten on points but his stock has risen. So much so that he is now in the running for another huge boxing payday against Joshua, 34. Hearn told iFL TV: "Right now, we have three fights that we're in discussions for. "They're all big and that doesn't involve Deontay Wilder for March. Our aim, and they've expressed this is to fight the winner of Fury-Usyk. "That's all we want to do, obviously there's the Hrgovic fight out there for the world heavyweight title. "There's a Francis Ngannou fight out there which would be absolutely colossal. "There's other heavyweights as well, there's a Zhang fight possible as well with Queensberry."

Promoter Oscar De La Hoya hopes Ryan Garcia’s bromance with Floyd Mayweather Jr. results in some improvements to Garcia’s defense.
The head of Golden Boy Promotions was recently asked to respond to a video on social media showing his ace client going on a late night run with Mayweather, and De La Hoya, a longtime rival of Mayweather, in and out of the ring, offered a charitable answer.
“That’s awesome,” De La Hoya told ESNews. “Look, I always praise a fighter, a young fighter who wants to soak up all that information from a legend, from an icon. So when I saw Ryan running with Floyd, I was like yeah, ask him questions about defense, about you know.
“In the meantime I’m gonna promote Vergil Ortiz who’s gonna knock everyone out … so I’m glad that Vergil comes to me and gets information and soaks it in,” De La Hoya said. “If Ryan wants to go with Floyd, and not to me, so be it, it’s great. Because that’s another legend. Different styles but another legend. So it’s all information that these young fighters are soaking in, which is great.” De La Hoya and Garcia, of course, have been involved in a protracted feud since last spring, after De La Hoya failed to show up in the press conference after Garcia’s loss to Gervonta Davis. De La Hoya then sued Garcia over his contract; that lawsuit is believed to be ongoing.
Despite their rift, Garcia fought under the Golden Boy banner in December, stopping Oscar Duarte in eight rounds at Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. Garcia has long maintained friendly relations with Mayweather, although their relationship has prompted the occasional snide comment from De La Hoya. On social media, Garcia made it clear that Mayweather was “mentoring” him, but he also pushed back against those who interpreted his run with Mayweather as being disloyal to his coach, Derrick James. “Floyd is mentoring me, And I love and respect him, he is so authentic so stop judging him,” Garcia wrote. Judging a book by its cover will stop you from reading but Derrick James is my coach, and I love him too.”