Joshua was to have a rematch with Wladimir Klitschko in November but the Ukrainian on Thursday, August 3 announced his retirement from boxing.

Following Klitschko’s retirement, Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has revealed that they will focus attention on Pulev, the only mandatory IBF challenger.

“I had a call last night saying he was retiring,” Hearn told .

“Contractually Klitschko had to take the rematch unless he retired or decided against it. We have been working on it with people in Las Vegas two or three months. We were gearing up for an announcement shortly.

Joshua was ready to fight Klitschko in Lagos

“We’ll focus on our attention on [mandatory IBF challenger] Kubrat Pulev. When we got the agreement with Klitschko it was under the provision we’d fight Pulev if it didn’t happen.”

Pulev has only one lost in his 26-fight career which came at the hands of Klitschko in 2014.