“I think he’s a bigger puncher than AJ, I really do,” Warren said on talkSPORT Breakfast on Friday as he previewed the IBF heavyweight world title fight.
“He’s the younger guy [at age 26], AJ’s 34.
“Most heavyweights don’t reach their primes until they’re in their 30s, but this young man’s really done well.
“And he’s learned the hard way – he’s had a couple of setbacks in his career and showed a lot of grit when he took what I thought was a lot of really terrible criticism from some people in the business.
“Especially when he had such a horrific injury in a fight [the broken orbital bone which caused him to take a knee against Joe Joyce].
“And he’s come back and certainly in his last two fights he’s had to show what he’s all about.
“He’s had to grit his teeth and showed a lot of heart and determination to come through against two undefeated fighters and stopped both of them.”
Dubois was upgraded to become the IBF champion this week, meaning it will in fact be AJ challenging for the belt on September 21.
This is because in his last fight Dubois claimed the IBF ‘interim’ belt by stopping Filip Hrgovic, so was upgraded to become full champion when Oleksandr Usyk agreed to vacate.
Now, Joshua vs Dubois is a done deal with Saudi boxing chiefs putting up the money to stage the fight in the UK.
“It will be a packed house,” Warren explained, “It is part of the Riyadh Season though, that’s the reason this massive show’s happening, it’s because of the Riyadh Season.
“This is the Wembley edition of the Riyadh Season, it’s there to promote what happens in Riyadh and thankfully boxing’s benefiting from that.
“This is a marvellous card headed up by the most fantastic fight.
“These guys are both big punchers and they’ve both got great jabs.
“My man Daniel is really finding himself, he’s matured not just physically, but mentally now.”
Talk later turned to the possibility of Joshua vs Tyson Fury in future, should the Gypsy King earn a revenge win over Usyk in their December 21 rematch.
However, Warren concluded: “That’s not gonna happen and I’ll tell you why that’s not gonna happen.
“Because Daniel Dubois is gonna knock AJ out.”
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