Surprisingly, tickets are still on sale for next month’s Anthony Joshua vs. Daniel Dubois fight, which will be held on September 14th at the 100,000-seat Wembley Stadium in London.
Dubois Focused on Knockout
IBF heavyweight champion Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs) is eager to knock out the former two-time champion Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) and set himself up to face the winner of the Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk rematch in early 2025.
Joshua has won his last four fights against low-level opposition, and his fans believe that he’s been rejuvenated to pre-Wladimir Klitschko vintage form. I don’t see it that way.
To be brought back to the level Joshua was at before, he would need to age backward, which is physically impossible, even with modern science. He’s always had issues with his punch resistance.
Joshua’s last four wins:
- Francis Ngannou: *Celebrity level match. It should have never been sanctioned as a professional fight.
- Otto Wallin: Brought in on three-week notice
- Robert Helenius: 41-year-old coming off 1st round KO
- Jermaine Franklin: Coming off defeat to Dillian Whyte
AJ’s wins over this abysmal lot show nothing besides that he’s been matched carefully by his wily promoter, Eddie Hearn.
For Joshua to show that he’s been rejuvenated to age backward in Benjamin Button form, he would need to beat better fighters than these four that Hearn carefully picked out to rebuild Joshua and re-package him for marketing purposes.
You’d have to be dense and utterly slow on the uptake to believe that Joshua has been retro-fitted in a true sense after beating these four low-level fighters.
“Victory is definite. A stoppage is what I’m after, and a statement is what I’m all about,” said Daniel Dubois to Sky Sports Boxing about his goal for his fight against challenger Anthony Joshua on September 21st in London.
A knockout is what Dubois needs to focus on in this fight because if it goes to the scorecards, the chances are high that Joshua will get the nod from the judges. He’s the aging star with the mega-fight against Tyson Fury around the corner.
They have to make the Joshua-Fury money fight before the two aging stars go supernova and blast their matter all over the universe.
“If Joshua can make Dubois look like he made Wallin and Ngannou look, I think you’re talking for real here,” said analyst Paulie Malignaggi to the Probox TV YouTube site about Joshua.
If Joshua knocks out Dubois, it won’t prove as much as you’d think because he’s already been knocked out by Usyk and Joe Joyce.
Joshua must knock out Dubois, Usyk, and Fury to prove his specialness. I don’t see that happening because Usyk has AJ’s number and will likely beat him again if the two meet for a trilogy.
Ben Davison’s Influence: Overstated?
“He’s looking good with Ben Davison. He’s a good trainer, and it’s shown in Joshua’s confidence and skill set,” said Malignaggi. “He’s asserting himself now. Dubois is a risk guy. If he can dominate Dubois, it would be a massive statement.”
Ben Davison hasn’t improved Joshua. He’s still the same fighter he always was. The guys Joshua fought in his first four fights were weaker than the fighters he fought in the amateur ranks, and that’s the reality of the situation.
Wallin and Helenius were old. Ngannou was just a guy who was famous from his years in the UFC and was a celebrity. Jermaine was a fringe contender coming off a loss to Whyte. Joshua could have beaten those guys similarly, training himself because they were horrible fighters.
“He’s looked like the Joshua of old, the pre-Klitschko Joshua, who was dominant,” said Chris Algieri about his thoughts on Joshua looking like the version of himself from 2013 to 2016, when he was destroying lesser opposition.
Things changed when Joshua fought the 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko in 2017 and was almost knocked out.
“Joshua was controlling, physical, explosive, scoring knockouts and really punishing guys. That’s the type of Joshua it’s going to take if he’s going to get a win over Usyk,” said Algieri, assuming AJ beats Dubois on September 21st.
“He’s a different guy now that he’s with Ben Davison. The confidence is there, the skill set is there, and the physicality is there. The mindset that’s where really the difference has been with Anthony Joshua. He was a little shaky after that Klitschko fight,” said Algieri.
I wouldn’t say Joshua was shaky after Klitschko because he won his next three fights against Carlos Takam, Joseph Parker, and Alexander Povetkin before getting knocked out in the seventh round by Andy Ruiz Jr. on June 1st, 2019.
If AJ had been “shaky,” he would have had problems against those three before the Ruiz fight. Although Joshua was staggered by Povetkin in their fight in September 2018, it had nothing to do with a lack of confidence. It was the same chin problem that Joshua had exhibited against Wladimir and later against Ruiz.
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