Frank Warren has stated that reigning IBF heavyweight champ Daniel Dubois will return to action in February, with the date of Feb. 22 “penciled in” for a Riyadh card. Fresh off his crushing KO win over Anthony Joshua, 27 year old Dubois is in a very good place, with plenty of big-fight options seemingly open to him.
(Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)
One of these big fights is a rematch with Joshua, and Warren said he is very much open to it. Not only that, but Eddie Hearn says Turki Alalshikh wants to see the rematch and that this could be the fight AJ takes next – no tune-up.
Warren told TNT Sports that the fight could happen “in a heartbeat” if Joshua and his team want it.
“I’m not against that at all. That’s not an open door for me, I’ll take the door off the hinges and we’ll do it,” Warren said regarding a Dubois Vs. Joshua II. “That fight is there. If they want it, they’ve got it, have it in a heartbeat. His next fight will be in February. That’s when he’ll fight next, and we will work out who that’s going to be against in the next week or two weeks.”
And Hearn told Talk Sport that Joshua “will always want the rematch” and that his next fight be on a Riyadh card. It seems it really could be the immediate rematch with Dubois that AJ takes.
“Rematch clauses come in many different forms,” Hearn said. “We have a fight with Riyadh Season. One of our options is to fight Daniel Dubois again, and our contract is with them. His Excellency will deal with Frank and Daniel and make that fight happen. The terms will have to be agreed with them. We have already agreed our terms, we have the option to rematch with Dubois. Our meeting with his Excellency, he wants the rematch. AJ will always want the rematch. Daniel wants the rematch too. It’s the biggest fight for him and they will fancy it. It’s a case of going away and talking about, do we go straight into the rematch? And when will it be? It was a heavy night at the office, we aren’t going back to fight in 10-12 weeks, he needs his rest and time to recover.”
If the rematch between Dubois and Joshua does happen on February 22, that will be five months after the first fight, where we all saw what happened to Joshua. Is an immediate rematch at all wise for the 34-year-old former two-time champ? Should Joshua take a tune-up bout first to get his confidence back? However, as Hearn pointed out, plenty of people advised Joshua against going straight back in with Andy Ruiz after Ruiz stopped AJ in June of 2019, yet Joshua did it. He got his revenge (over an extremely overweight Ruiz, it must be said, but that wasn’t Joshua’s fault).
A return between Dubois and Joshua would be a big fight, no doubt, and there will be those who feel AJ can right the wrong. But another loss to the same man, via a similar result, and where does Joshua go then? Credit to Joshua if he does take the immediate rematch; this is what warriors do. But sometimes a ring warrior can be too focused on revenge, on getting back on track with his goal (in Joshua’s case, that of becoming a three-time heavyweight champ) that he or she puts long-term health and immediate safety firmly to one side.
Joshua really would be risking a whole lot if he went right back in with Dubois again.
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