The Problem Child, 28, has consistently called out AJ, 35, to face him in the ring, and while Joshua’s promoter isn’t adversed to seeing him fight Paul, Hearn has stressed the bout isn’t a priority for them.
Speaking with Sky Sports, the Matchroom promoter, 46, said: “We're certainly not holding out for a Jake Paul fight. We're making our own plans and that will be January, February 2026.”
Hearn said Paul - who is due to face Gervonta Davis, 30, on November 14 in Florida - is interested in fighting Joshua, but the promoter said the match-up wouldn’t happen if The Problem Child is knocked out by Tank.
Hearn said: “They've come on to me and said, 'We want to make that fight [with AJ].' I said, 'I can't make that fight until you've fought Gervonta Davis in this exhibition.'
“If you get chinned by Gervonta Davis, don't think you're fighting Anthony Joshua, it's ridiculous. So we'd rather they didn't take that fight if we're going to make the [Joshua] fight.”
Hearn is more interested in seeing Joshua face Tyson Fury, 37, with AJ having just launched a barrage of attacks on The Gypsy King over social media.
The promoter said Joshua was hoping to face the former heavyweight champion in the ring, but was first focused on building himself up after his knockout loss to Daniel Dubois, 28, last year.
Hearn said: “Now he's back in training and my conversations over the last couple of weeks have been very positive with him about locking in a date and returning.
“Then I saw that post [directed at Fury]. When AJ posts something like that, you know that he's on.
“He's like 'let's go, I'm back' and that's where we're up to. So the next move is to lock in that fight in early 2026 and then we want Tyson Fury.”
Even so, Hearn admitted “there haven't really been any conversations” between their side and Fury’s team about a potential fight.
He continued: “We expect Fury to have another fight as well, if he's going to fight AJ. There haven't really been any conversations. The kind of vibe I'm getting from the team is ‘we're confident it will happen’. But until we start talking, who knows?
“We're not just putting all our eggs in one basket to say it's Tyson Fury because before that we're going to have another fight and we've got to win that one first.”
