Now, Daniel Dubois holds a portion of the heavyweight championship. Additionally, he does not want Anthony Joshua—one of the past monarchs—to compel him to abdicate.
About a year ago, Oleksandr Usyk, the owner of three of the four heavyweight titles at the time, defeated Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs). After defeating Tyson Fury for the last title, Usyk emerged victorious and became the undisputed champion.
Unfortunately, Usyk was not going to face Dubois again because of his rematch with Fury. You see, Usyk is required since Dubois became the interim IBF champion following his technical knockout victory over Filip Hrgovic earlier this year. The sanctioning body promoted Dubois after Usyk gave up the IBF championship; he remains the undisputed three-belt champion and the lineal champion.
This implies that when Joshua and Dubois square off on September 21 at London’s Wembley Stadium, Joshua will be the opponent. DAZN and PPV.com will be the outlets for their pay-per-view.
Joshua had held the belts of WBA, WBO, and IBF until his unexpected technical knockout loss to Andy Ruiz in June 2019. In December of the same year, he was able to reclaim them, but he was forced to give them up once more after losing to Usyk by unanimous decision in September of 2021. Joshua has since won four straight fights, although he lost to Usyk in their 2022 rematch. 26 KOs makes him 28-3.
Conversely, Dubois has also had to rebuild twice. In November 2020, he faced Joe Joyce and was in the lead on two of the three scorecards; nevertheless, he took a 10 count due to an eye socket fracture. Dubois challenged Usyk in August 2023 following four victories. There was discussion following that fight on whether Dubois’ shot that took down Usyk was a legitimate hit on the beltline or a low-ball inadvertent foul. Dubois was ultimately stopped by Usyk in the ninth.
After making a comeback in December 2023, Dubois stopped Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller in the closing seconds of the championship bout. In June, he also stopped Hrgovic.
In a recent face-off interview with DAZN, Dubois remarked, “As you know, I was in a bad place and I was going through some issues, but I feel like I’ve been revived today,” alongside Joshua and their respective promoters. Now that I’m back in the light, I’m prepared to battle. He has ruled as king for some time. In actuality, he has been king for a very long time. But here’s the thing: I think this is my moment. As a king murderer, I must once more carry out that duty.
We’ll accept Dubois’ allusion to Game of Thrones, whether deliberate or not. Then we’ll go on to one of our own: promoter Frank Warren, a hand of the king, is one individual who is fairly certain that Dubois’ rule will endure.
“That’s the young man. I believe he has grown up. Additionally, he’s had some fantastic experiences over the past few years, and everything is clicking for him,” Warren remarked. “In his last two fights, he’s given two pretty impressive performances against powerful guys who had come to fight.” In Hrgovic, one of the combatants was someone to be avoided. He broke Hrgovic’s heart in the deal and was hailed as one of the best heavyweights available by all.
Later in the conversation, Warren said, “He’s hungry.” “He is a fighter. I would never question his abilities. He has a jab. He is a puncher. His mobility is good. He moves quickly. That’s just him in his brain, that’s all. He has demonstrated his abilities in his last two contests. He has to go quite far. And he did it with incredible style, pulling it out of the bag. There is no doubt about that. He did it in opposition to elite fighters.
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