Anthony Joshua may be just eight days away from all but unifying the heavyweight division but the biggest story of the week is nothing to do with his bout against Joseph Parker next Saturday.

Instead, Joshua has made the headlines due to the reports that he may be on the brink of signing for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Joshua is currently one of the brightest and most marketable boxing talents on the planet. Since his defeat of Wladimir Klitschko last April, Joshua’s star has continued to rise and there are few boxers in the world that generate as much interest.

It was reported in the Telegraph that the UFC is making a bid to sign Joshua on a multi-fight deal that could earn the 28-year-old up to $500 million, making him the richest British boxer of all time. It is quite a move by the UFC, whose owner, Dana White, is due to meet the Englishman in London this week. It has long been known that White is a huge fan of Joshua saying he had changed the face of boxing but to actually make a move to sign him is audacious, to say the least.

Initially, the talk was not that Joshua will defect to UFC but rather that UFC will enter boxing. It is an interesting development and Joshua has, on the face of it at least, showed a real interest in speaking to White.

His curiosity is of little surprise considering the staggering sums that are at stake but whether the heavyweight can actually be lured away from his current promoter, Eddie Hearn, is intriguing.

Hearn has become a top-class promoter and seems to have what it takes to make sure the big fights get made. Could UFC and Dana White do the same? Yes, UFC has the money but as the Floyd Mayweather - Manny Pacquiao palaver illustrated, money and having the potential to make the best fight in the world is not always enough.

But UFC’s entry into boxing would certainly spice things up. That the Mayweather – Conor McGregor fight – which was never going to be anything other than one-way traffic – became one of the biggest sporting events in the world in the build-up shows the ability of UFC to sell anything. So selling Joshua and increasing his marketability even further would seem far from a struggle.

And with boxing perhaps not on the decline but certainly having to fight hard for valuable publicity at a time in which there are fewer true stars as well as fewer of the best fights being made than ever before, a few fresh ideas would not go amiss.

But there are a couple of real concerns as to what UFC and White’s real motives are. With White’s true love being UFC, it seems unlikely that he will not try to make a boxing match between Joshua and one of UFC’s top heavyweights happen.

The problem is that switching sports and expecting a mixed martial arts fighter to step into a boxing ring and be a true contender is, frankly, fantasy land. McGregor may have performed better than anyone expected when he faced Mayweather but it is likely that a heavyweight contest would be another kettle of fish entirely.

And secondly, it does not seem too far a stretch to suggest that White will, at some point, try to lure Joshua into becoming a UFC fighter, even temporarily.

The former Olympic boxing champion has already shown that he is not adverse to dabbling in UFC, saying in a previous interview: “a fight’s a fight.” I’m all for spicing up sport but there is something deeply undesirable about sports overlapping too much.

To reach elite level in anything takes a lifetime of dedication and the fact that Joshua only came to boxing in his late teens has been commented upon numerous times as to the rapidity of his rise, which is almost unique.

There are instances in which athletes have switched sports and come away with considerable success but rarely does that transition include heavyweight boxing. UFC and White have many good ideas and they certainly have qualities which could reinvigorate boxing. But introducing any kind of crossover would be disappointing for the athletes and fans alike. Let’s hope that’s not the path that Joshua is going down.