Eddie Hearn says he hasn’t decided who Anthony Joshua’s opponent will be for his fight on September 21st at Wembley Stadium.
The one that fans would like the former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) to face is Daniel Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs), but he’s developed into arguably the best fighter in the division since last year. Putting Joshua in with Dubois is a bad idea, given what’s at stake for AJ.
While he feels a fight between Joshua and Dubois is a potential option, he’s unsure if they’ll pursue it. Hearn needs to find a good enough opponent to help Joshua sell out the 80,000-seat Wembley stadium, but him being in with the young phenomenon Dubois would be a foolhardy move.
The other two options for Joshua are safer choices:
- Zhilei Zhang: 41, slow and a fighter that Joshua can potentially beat by using the Klitscho-esque style he employed for his rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr. in 2019. As long as Joshua doesn’t stand in front of Zhang, he wins quite easily. Zhang is helpless against movers that jab a lot.
- Joseph Parker: A fighter Joshua had already beaten by boxing him from the outside. With Parker having become a purely defensive fighter since his knockout loss in 2022, he would be a safe choice for AJ and an easy mark.
Dubois’ Power Poses Threat to Aging Joshua
Hearn may be concerned about throwing the soon-to-be 35-year-old Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) in with the rugged, young 26-year-old Dubois and seeing AJ meet the same fate as his Matchroom fighter, Filip Hrgovic.
I don’t blame Hearn if he chooses to have Joshua avoid Dubois. Daniel is too dangerous right now, as he is clearly on a roll with his victories over Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller and Hrgovic.
The punches that Dubois walked through in those two fights would have knocked Joshua clean out and derailed his career. Joshua ain’t going to want to get into a firefight with a young phenom like Dubois. Boxing is for younger fighters, and Joshua has got a lot of mileage on the odometer.
Dubois made the 31-year-old Hrgovic look like an old man last Saturday night, busting him up in an eighth-round TKO win. Joshua is even older than Hrgovic, and it’s a bad idea for him to face Dubois right now, given the huge payday available for AJ against the winner of the December 21st fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.
Hearn Cautious but Open to All-British Fight
“An all-British fight for the world title would definitely be massive at Wembley, but no decision made yet,” Hearn said to Matchroom Boxing.
As long as His Excellency doesn’t insist on Dubois being Joshua’s opponent on September 21st, he’s free to pick a safer option by choosing Zhang or Parker.
That would be the smart thing to do because there’s too much sweet cash that Joshua can scoop up fighting the Fury-Usyk 2 winner, and he’s not rugged or young enough to face Dubois without ending up in the same boat as Hrgovic.
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