A FRESH spanner has been thrown into the works of a grudge match between Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder.

The pair’s long-overdue showdown was on the brink of coming to fruition last December before Wilder suffered a shock loss to Joseph Parker.

AJ, however, refused to close the door on a dust-up with the American and revealed earlier this month that he could potentially fight him at Wembley.

But Saudi boxing chief Turki Alalshikh seemingly has different plans for Wilder, who returns to the ring on June 1 for a do-or-die showdown with Zhilei Zhang.

Alalshikh plans to have Wilder take part in a domestic dust-up against the undefeated Jared Anderson should he come through his Riyad rumble with Zhang.

Alongside a picture of himself and Anderson, Alalshikh tweeted: “The talented Jared Anderson is with us now on [the] August 3rd Riyadh Season card at LA, against the ‘Bronze Bomber’ Deontay Wilder.”

“If he’s ready by then to fight after 1st of June’s fight against Zhilei Zhang.”

Joshua, 34, hasn’t set foot inside the ring since his brutal two-round demolition of former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in March.

But he recently claimed he’s on course to fight either Wilder, Zhang, Filip Hrgovic or Daniel Dubois this September.

He told talkSPORT late last month: “Whenever they tell me there’s a date, you know I’ll be ready 100 per cent.

“It’s gonna be in London, Wembley Stadium.

“This is what I’m being told. If that’s what they say, they normally back their word so let’s go with that.