By: Sean Crose
With Oleksandr Usyk relinquishing his IBF heavyweight championship this week, former IBF titlist Anthony Joshua will fight Daniel Dubois (current title holder because he was once the number one contender) for the belt. The scheduled round 12 match between the two British players will take place on September 21 at Wembley Stadium in London. Of course, this is a big fight but also an interesting one. While most would argue (justifiably) that Usyk is still the heavyweight king (he has beaten both Joshua and Dubois, after all), Joshua and Dubois are high-level fighters who are also exciting to watch. see.
Furthermore, Dubois almost (some would say definitely) knocked Usyk out last year in Poland. While Usyk ultimately won the fight, there’s no denying that Dubois could at least have had his moments against the now-legendary Ukrainian. What’s more, Usyk will be facing Tyson Fury in a rematch this December, a man neither Joshua nor Usyk have ever met in the ring. Bottom line? The winner of this Joshua-Usyk fight will have a bright future ahead of him. While each has lost a few fights, the days of fans disqualifying fighters for losing seem, thankfully, to be coming to an end… and not for a second, son.
Putting some minor losses aside, the first thing that comes to mind for Joshua and Dubois is that these guys can fight. Hard. Hard as thunder. Low or not, Dubois’s shot to Usyk’s torso last year clearly hurt the brave champion. That’s not surprising, however, as all but one of Dubois’s 21 victories have come by way of knockout or early stoppage. Since the Usyk fight, Dubois has stopped Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic, respectively.
Joshua, of course, needs no introduction. At one point, this man held three of the four major heavyweight titles. He has stopped the likes of Wladimir Klitschko and Alexander Povetkin and was once on the cusp of a fight for the undisputed heavyweight championship (boxing politics – along with the US legal system – have prevented prevent that epic fight with Fury from happening). Things weren’t looking good for the towering Brit after losing two fights, along with his belt, to Usyk a few years ago, but he came back strong, winning four in a row. His last fight, a two-round destruction of UFC legend Francis Ngannou, was a fighter’s nightmare.
Things reportedly got tense between Joshua and Dubois on Wednesday, with the two men having to separate while recording pre-fight promotional material. Joshua responded to the incident by posting a photo of himself on social media in a fierce looking tank top. The image is accompanied by the following words:
“Reality is about to hit him.”
