ANTHONY JOSHUA will continue his quest to be crowned the undisputed world heavyweight champion when he faces New Zealander Joseph Parker in Cardiff on March 31.

Joshua, who holds the WBA and IBF versions of the title, will add Parker’s WBO belt if he triumphs at the Millennium Stadium, leaving only WBC champion Deontay Wilder on his title hit-list.

Today’s announcement brings an end to months of fractious negotiations with Parker, who defended his crown with a points win over Hughie Fury in Manchester in September and was holding out for a bigger percentage of the purse.

It will be Joshua’s first fight since a gruelling late stoppage win over late replacement Carlos Takam at the same venue in October and a win will move him closer to his goal of being the first heavyweight to hold all four major belts simultaneously.

Parker, who has won 18 of his 24 professional bouts inside the distance, is the natural next step for Joshua despite his underwhelming performance against the back-pedalling Fury, when he escaped with a majority decision.

The 26-year-old claimed the WBO crown by beating Andy Ruiz Jnr in Auckland in December 2016 and made a low-key defence against Razvan Cojanu before venturing out of the southern hemisphere for only the fourth time to face Fury.