Anthony Joshua wants ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ as British star mulls over Jake Paul bout

Anthony Joshua is considering a fight in Africa as he mulls over his next move with his team jetting out to Ghana to assess options.

The British heavyweight’s reps flew out to Accra this week to take a look at venues and hold talks about staging a fight there. But it is only one of a number of options on the table for the Watford warrior. Joshua is also in talks with YouTube motormouth Jake Paul.

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The London 2012 Olympic gold medallist is on the comeback trail after a shock knockout defeat by Daniel Dubois last September. Joshua, whose parents are Nigerian, has long had an ambition to fight in Africa and bring big-time boxing to the continent.

Matchroom Boxing CEO Frank Smith and Joshua’s manager Freddie Cunningham visited the 40,000- capacity Accra Sports Stadium on Tuesday.

Tony Yoka – who controversially beat Joe Joyce to win gold at Rio 2016 – has been mooted as a potential opponent if Joshua chooses to fight in Africa. Martin Bakole, from the Democratic Republic of Congo but based in Scotland, is another potential foe.

Frenchman Yoka recently signed with Queensberry Promotions and will have his debut with them in the coming weeks.

But he would be eager to be Joshua’s next opponent and will be ready to go late in 2025 or next year. While Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn’s new friendship means politics won’t be a problem.

Joshua is weighing up all his options. A fight with boxing novice but social media star Paul would be a lucrative option, even if it would offer little or no test.

While former world super-middleweight and light-heavyweight champion Andre Ward called him out for a fight earlier this week.

Ward has been retired since 2017 and has never boxed at heavyweight so it would unlikely at this stage despite Joshua responding positively on social media.

Joshua, 35, is planning for a fight early in 2026 as he recovers from an operation on his elbow. He went under the knife in May and had previously hoped to fight in December but 2026 might be more realistic.

Joshua still has hopes of facing Tyson Fury next year but he is waiting to see if the Gypsy King will step out of his retirement to return to the ring.

Fury has not fought since he was outpointed by Oleksandr Usyk for a second time last December and is also targeting a third fight with the Ukrainian.

Joshua also has two defeats against Usyk on his record but he is targeting a strong finish to his career before calling it a day next year.