Anthony Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, is trying his best to psyche out IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois to throw him off his game by creating seeds of doubt in the young talent for their fight on Saturday.
(Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)
It’s sneaky stuff from Hearn, but he’s got to try something because Joshua is the money man for his company. If Dubois sinks Joshua’s ship, there isn’t a guy waiting in the rings to fill his shoes to bring in the dough.
Hearn claims that Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs) is an underdog because he’s not on Joshua’s level. He is making these remarks, hoping that one or two of them will be taken in by Dubois and cause him to feel like he’s in over his head.
The idea is for Hearn to get Dubois to quit mentally, as some fans believe he did in his losses to Joe Joyce and Oleksandr Usyk. You see this kind of stuff from desperate people, and Hearn is worried.
He can’t have faith in Joshua after watching him get beaten in consecutive fights by Usyk. If Hearn believed in AJ, he wouldn’t have matched him like he did in the last two years. Hearn would have put Joshua back in with the best.
“He’s a heavyweight, 6’6″ and about 18 stone. What would you expect for him not to look big and strong?” said Eddie Hearn to Matchroom Boxing, talking about Daniel Dubois, who is coming to make mincemeat of Anthony Joshua on Saturday night.
“He’s dangerous. People are looking for ways to kind of talk up Daniel Dubois’ chances. You don’t need to. He’s a live underdog, but he’s an underdog, and he’s an underdog for a reason,” Hearn continued. “He’s not as good as Anthony Joshua.”
At this point, you can’t label Dubois an underdog because he’s fighting at a higher level than Joshua and has been facing far better opposition. If anything, this is a 50-50 fight or 60-40 in Dubois’ favor. Joshua hasn’t shown that he’s still a top-shelf fighter for many years. When was the last time Joshua fought someone good? You can’t say Joshua’s last four opponents were good.
“He’s not a complete fighter like Anthony Joshua, but he’s very dangerous and that’s why people love to tune in to the heavyweights. Anything can happen,” said Hearn.
It doesn’t matter if Dubois is a complete fighter. He can still win because he has these ingredients:
– Youth
– Stamina
– Punch resistance
– Self determination
– Mental strength
– Fighting better competition
“You’ve got Dubois trying to slay the King. It’s all very well to talk it, but when you get in there, and you’re around them on fight week. You saw Dubois in the head-to-head,” said Hearn.
When Dubois commented about slaying the King, he was talking about Joshua’s popularity, not where he is now. Joshua was never the true King of the heavyweight division because he was always carefully matched by Hearn to fight lesser guys.
Even when Joshua stepped up against Wladimir Klitschko in 2017, that fight wasn’t made until Wlad was 41. Hearn could have made that fight four years earlier but chose not to. Hearn has maneuvered Joshua like he did with Edgar Berlanga, keeping him away from the talents.
“You could see the chest going up and down. It doesn’t mean he’s not going to be dangerous, but having that presence around you means a lot in this sport. AJ is super calm, and he really feels he’s a veteran in this game, which he is, by the way,” said Hearn.
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— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) September 18, 2024
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