The UFC are the world’s richest fighting promoters and are planning to take the step into boxing.
And the Daily Telegraph say that the UFC – who have already applied for a boxing licence in the state of Nevada – want to snatch Joshua away from Matchroom Boxing with just a year left on his current deal.
UFC president Dana White has previously called Joshua “the most marketable guy in world boxing” and wants him to be the face of Zuffa Boxing, the UFC’s new boxing brand.
White will travel to Cardiff to meet with Joshua’s team and will attend the 28-year-old’s bout with Joseph Parker on March 31 as he looks to take a step closer to being undisputed world champion.
Joshua currently holds the heavyweight IBO and WBA (Super) titles and can also add the WBO belt should he beat New Zealand’s Parker as he looks to extend his unbeaten record to 21-0 in a third straight stadium showdown.
The heavyweight champion is one of the sport’s stand-out stars having sold out 90,000-seater Wembley Stadium for his enthralling win over Wladimir Klitschko last April.
And he could fight Stateside for the first time if he beats Parker, with a lucrative super fight with WBC champion Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas in the pipeline to contest all four belts.
Joshua’s biggest career purse so far was the £15 million he raked in from defeating Klitschko and he is likely to pull in a similar amount from his unification fight with Parker.
But it is estimated that signing with the UFC would bump his funds from each fight up to around a staggering £35 million.
The Telegraph do not state whether or not the UFC would be looking to take him out of boxing.
Joshua recently claimed that he would be open to a mixed martial arts fight, with a move into the octagon a potential possibility if he were to sign a multi-fight contract with the UFC.
The Watford-born boxer named Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones as the two opponents he would most like to face were a crossover fight to be organised.
Joshua told Sky Sports boxing podcast Toe 2 Toe: “I’d have to obviously have a couple of warm-up fights because you have to learn the submissions and stuff.
“But a fight’s a fight at the end of the day. Yeah I’d do it.”