The International Boxing Federation [IBF] has made it official, confirming that Daniel Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs) is mandatory for Oleksandr Usyk’s IBF heavyweight title with their organization after Dubois’ eighth-round technical knockout win last Saturday night at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Dubois targeting Joshua Fight in September
While Dubois is now the IBF interim heavyweight champion, he’s negotiating a fight against Anthony Joshua for September 21st at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
In the meantime, the IBF still must decide if the full title will be available for the Joshua-Dubois fight in September. They could allow Usyk to keep his IBF title for his rematch with Tyson Fury on December 21st.
By allowing Usyk to hold onto his IBF title, it means his undisputed championship will be up for grabs in his rematch with the superstar Fury, and that’s going to be a big-money fight with a lot of eyes on it from around the world.
You can argue that there will be more interest in the Fury vs. Usyk 2 rematch than in the Joshua vs. Dubois clash on September 21st. That is because Joshua-Dubois is more appealing to British domestic audiences than worldwide.
In contrast, fans worldwide are interested in seeing the rematch between Fury and Usyk because of their first fight and because Tyson is more of a personality than AJ and Dubois.
Fury’s celebrity air allows him to cross boundaries with other countries, even if they don’t understand what he’s saying. He’s theatrical, like an actor, and a pure character.
Full Title Fight or Undisputed Clash?
Some fans from the UK would like to see Joshua vs. Dubois have the full IBF title at stake for their fight in Sepmteber. However, there are just as many, if not more, who want to see the undisputed championship being available for the second fight between Usyk and Fury in December.
Joshua fans want the full IBF title to be at stake for the Dubois fight, as they want him to capture the belt and then have it available when he faces the Fury-Usyk 2 winner. It doesn’t bring any extra weight to the Joshua vs. Dubois fight. The IBF interim title will be available for the Joshua-Dubois fight, and that’s more than enough.
Whoever emerges as the winner of the fight between Joshua and Dubois will still get the chance to fight for the four belts. So it doesn’t matter if they fight for the single IBF belt in September or wait until they face the Fury vs. Usyk rematch winner to battle for all four.
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