Anthony Joshua begrudgingly praised Daniel Dubois in an interview today, talking about him getting repeated opportunities after losses.
A Sense of Superiority
One could sense that Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) feels he’s superior to Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs) even though the tables have turned in their careers, with Daniel, the IBF heavyweight champion, and AJ, the challenger going into their headliner fight on September 21st at Wembley Stadium in London.
Dubois is the underdog for their fight, but many people believe he’s going to wear down the 34-year-old Joshua, and knock him out in the later rounds if he makes it that far.
AJ’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, has brought him back from the brink with four carefully picked opponents after his second defeat against Oleksandr Usyk on August 20, 2022.
Manufactured Success
Hearn matched Joshua against these four fighters to mentally rebuild him:
– Francis Ngannou
– Otto Wallin
– Robert Helenius
– Jermaine Franklin
Joshua didn’t look impressive against Franklin and Helenius. However, AJ looked good in his last two fights against Wallin and Ngannou, but those were a step-down in competition.
Hearn may have realized that Joshua needed lesser opposition to impress after he struggled against Helenius and Franklin. So, he wisely selected the novice Francis Ngannou and the 34-year-old Wallin to make Joshua look brand new.
“It’s going to be a tough night’s work for sure. It’s just Daniel Dubois. I said at the press conference table. It could have been anyone,” said Anthony Joshua to the DAZN Boxing YouTube channel. “Daniel worked hard enough to put himself there, so be it.”
A “tough night’s work” is an understatement by Joshua. There’s a good chance he will lose to Dubois, putting the soon-to-be 35-year-old Joshua in a tough position where he must decide whether to take the rematch or walk away from the loss to face Tyson Fury next.
The old Joshua would try to avenge his loss, but he may not because it’s now or never with Fury, who is showing signs of being over-the-hill at 36. If Joshua doesn’t fight Fury now, it might be too late if he waits for him to get beaten again after his rematch with Usyk on December 21st.
That one will likely end badly for Fury unless he can win a controversial decision, as we saw in his fight with Ngannou. If you count that as a loss, Fury is 0-2 in his last two fights, heading for retirement.
“Have you been surprised at how quickly Dubois has gotten there?” said Ade Oladipo about Dubois’s rapid move in the last two years, fighting Oleksandr Usyk, Jarrell Miller, and Filip Hrgovic.
“Yeah,” said Joshua. “They have belief in him. That’s why they keep giving him these opportunities,” said Joshua about Dubois. “Someone out there believes in him, and he keeps getting opportunity after opportunity. It reminds me of the Frank Bruno story. He had opportunity after opportunity to fight for the heavyweight championship of the world. Sooner or later, he got it.”
Joshua fails to mention that Dubois’ fight against Usyk was a controversial one on August 26, 2023. He should have been given a fifth-round knockout after dropping him with a body shot that the referee ruled was a low blow. Replays showed that it was on the beltline of Usyk’s trunks, which were pulled up to near his ribcage, almost as high as Fury wears his.
“You were ringside for the Hrgovic fight. So, you saw it up close. How impressed were you with that performance against a guy against a guy, Hrgovic, everyone at the time was saying was a top six or top seven heavyweight?” said Ade.
“I went to the fight and watched, and as you say, Hrgovic was a boogeyman. People respected him. He put up a good fight, but it wasn’t good enough,” said Joshua. “There were times in the fight where the tides were turning in Daniel’s favor and were turning in Hrgovic’s favor. I was thinking, ‘This is a good fight.’
“I could see where Daniel was starting to edge, and that was down to conditioning. He was able to keep breaking through brick wall after brick wall. After a while, Hrgovic wasn’t able to manage through brick wall after brick wall.
“If it wasn’t for the cuts, I felt Daniel would have gotten him out of there at some stage,” said Joshua.
Dubois wore Hrgovic down with his pressure, and it wasn’t all that competitive arfter the fourth round. Hrgovic looked tired and beaten from the fifth round on, and it was obvious that Dubois was going to knock him out.
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