PATERSON, New Jersey – Eddie Hearn announced this week that Anthony Joshua planned to sit ringside to watch Daniel Dubois defend his IBF heavyweight title against Joseph Parker on Saturday night.

Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs), who withdrew from the fight on Thursday due to illness, violently knocked out Joshua in the fifth round and retained his IBF belt before an enormous capacity crowd of approximately 96,000 on September 21 at Wembley Stadium in London. Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) was undefeated when he out-pointed Parker unanimously in their heavyweight title unification fight in March 2018 at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.

Whoever wins between New Zealand’s Parker (35-3, 23 KOs) and late substitute Martin Bakole (21-1, 16 KOs), the new co-feature of the stacked pay-per-view show at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, would be a natural next opponent for Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs).

Zhilei Zhang, ranked No. 4 among The Ring’s heavyweight contenders, hopes Joshua isn’t present when he squares off against Agit Kabayel, who is rated fifth by The Ring, earlier on the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitriy Bivol undercard Saturday night. According to the gigantic Chinese southpaw, witnessing what he plans to do to Kabayel would only further dissuade Joshua from considering Zhang for his first fight following that devastating Dubois defeat.

“If AJ wants it, and I don’t think he wants it, you would have to get the blessing from Eddie Hearn,” Zhang told The Ring following a recent training session at True Warriors Boxing Club. “And I don’t think he wants AJ anywhere near me.”

The 6-foot-6, 282-pound Zhang has long wanted another shot at the 6-foot-6, 245-pound Joshua, who defeated the 41-year-old former WBO interim heavyweight champ on points in the quarterfinals at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Zhang (27-2-1, 22 KOs), who resides in Bloomfield, New Jersey, and Germany’s Kabayel (25-0, 17 KOs) will fight for the WBC interim title, which would move the winner into position to eventually oppose Oleksandr Usyk (23-0, 14 KOs) for the Ukrainian southpaw’s Ring, WBA, WBC, WBO and IBO belts.

“We want Usyk, the top of the pyramid, or whoever owns the [WBC] belt,” Zhang said. “I give all the respect to Usyk. I respect him as a fighter. Mentally and physically, he’s very strong. If I get in the ring with him, I don’t know what the results will be. Hopefully I win, but I will give 1,000-percent effort.”

Zhang would love to fight Joshua in China, where the 2008 Olympic silver medalist has tried to bring a high-profile fight for several years. Joshua – a former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO champ – is ranked No. 7 by The Ring, whereas Dubois is No. 2 and Parker is No. 3.

“If [Joshua] wants to fight, send the contract,” Zhang said. “This is boxing. We’re chasing our dreams, but we’re also chasing financial success. If the opportunity to fight AJ presents itself, of course I will take it in a heartbeat.”

Kabayel-Zhang will be televised or streamed as part of “The Last Crescendo” card sponsored by Riyadh Season. DraftKings has established Kabayel as a slight favorite over Zhang in what will be the second of eight fights on a pay-per-view show set to start at 11 a.m. ET in the United States ($25.99) and 4 p.m. GMT in the United Kingdom (£19.99).