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ANOTHER ‘RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE’ BREWS AS DR CONGO EYES ANTHONY JOSHUA’S NEXT FIGHT

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Forty-five years after the famous Mohammed Ali versus George Foreman epic boxing heavyweight title fight in the then Zaire (now DR Congo), the country is again calling for another of such caliber fight.

The 1974 fight was dubbed ‘Rumble in the Jungle” when Muhammad Ali’s rope-a-dope ways outfoxed George Foreman.

 According to Sky Sport, promoter, Eddie Hearn is exploring an possibility of Anthony Joshua fighting in Congo. “There was an strategy,” Joshua’s supervisor Freddie Cunningham informed Sky Sports activities.

“There has been an approach,” Joshua’s manager Freddie Cunningham told Sky Sports. Joshua has proudly spoken of his Nigerian heritage and a fight in Africa, following in Ali’s famous footsteps, is on his “bucket list”.

“For the next fight, Africa is not the right time. But at some point he 100 per cent wants it,” Cunningham said.

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Joshua’s first two overseas fights came this year – the shock loss to Andy Ruiz Jr in New York and the rematch victory in Saudi Arabia.

But Tottenham’s new stadium in London has emerged as a realistic location for Joshua’s next fight.

Promoter Eddie Hearn previously said: “There are a lot of options internationally, but he does want to box back in the UK.

“[Tottenham] would be keen to do it and it would be a nice stadium to do it in London.”

Cunningham added: “It went so well in Saudi that they will want to be kept in the loop. And there are always options in the UK – Tottenham’s stadium is great and local to where AJ grew up.”

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Kubrat Pulev is leading the race to be Joshua’s next opponent although Oleksandr Usyk is also an option.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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