Anthony Joshua is looking for a new opponent for his next fight after Tyson Fury announced his retirement from the sport last month.
The heavyweight titans looked destined to finally square off this year.
Saudi boxing chief Turki Alalshikh was in the process of preparing a lucrative two-fight offer for the long-awaited all-British showdown.
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However, those plans have now been put on hold following Fury’s bombshell announcement.
Joshua’s team have now shifted their attention to other avenues, with AJ’s promoter Eddie Hearn setting his sights on a world title fight for his client.
“Right now because Tyson Fury is retired, so put him to the side, the number one choice for AJ is to fight for the world heavyweight title,” Hearn told BetFred.
“That’s 99 per cent of what he wants to do and if that’s Daniel Dubois, no problem. If that’s Joseph Parker, no problem.
“If AJ turns around and says that’s what he’s doing, then it’s done.
“It’s not me saying he can’t fight Daniel Dubois. Some people say he shouldn’t have fought Oleksandr Usyk. What are you talking about?
“It’s your job, he’s the mandatory, what do you want to do?
“Give your belt up and have all that criticism that you ducked Usyk and you vacated your belt to do it?”
Joshua, 35, rebounded well from his back-to-back losses to Oleksandr Usyk in 2020 and 2021 by winning his next four fights.
However, his winning streak came to a cruel, unforgiving end last September when he was flattened by Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium.
The devastating defeat prompted several members of the boxing fraternity to call for his retirement.
But Hearn played down the prospect of AJ hanging up his gloves just yet.
“Not yet, but there will come the time,” Hearn added.
“Those kinds of conversations really come from behind the scenes from how somebody is performing in camp.
“In camp, if you haven’t got it anymore, it’ll be apparent. The injuries will get worse, you’ll get hurt in sparring against somebody you shouldn’t be getting hurt against.
“You’re not sharp and when that moment comes, that’s when the team will say ‘AJ’s not looking good you know’ and that’s the moment when I will probably have a conversation with him.
“For the Daniel Dubois fight, the camp was great.
“He was super sharp and we were really confident going into that fight, coming off four good wins, two really good wins, and we thought he would win.
“We knew how dangerous the fight was, so he comes out, has a terrible start, never really recovers, comes back into the fight a little bit and gets chinned. No problem.
“If camp had gone really poorly and we were unsure, I think that conversation may have been brought forward.”
