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Joshua vs Dubois: The big questions ahead of an all-British boxing blockbuster
Anthony Joshua faces Daniel Dubois at Wembley this weekend and we answer the big questions ahead of the huge heavyweight showdown.
Boxing will take centre stage in the UK on Saturday night when two British fighters lock horns with a world heavyweight title on the line in front of more than 96,000 fans.
Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois should have the cavernous Wembley Stadium rocking as a record fight crowd assembles at the iconic venue for a pivotal showdown.
The IBF heavyweight title matchup - part of the Saudi Arabia-backed Riyadh Season with Turki Alalshikh bringing his boxing vision to these shores for the first time - continues what is becoming a golden year for the sport’s marquee weight class.
Furyjoshua.com looks at some of the key questions going into the big showdown.
Firstly, for the casual fan, if Oleksandr Usyk is the ‘undisputed’ world heavyweight champion, how is this fight for the IBF world heavyweight title?
Good question - and put simply the world heavyweight title picture is as complicated as ever.
Usyk beat Tyson Fury via split decision on May 18 to add the WBC title to his WBA, WBO and IBF collection. Yet just five weeks after becoming the first undisputed heavyweight champion in nearly 25 years, the brilliant Ukrainian reluctantly had to give up the IBF belt. This was due to the fact he was contracted to rematch Fury, and therefore unable to make a mandatory defence of the IBF belt.
The Ukrainian had requested his IBF belt not be stripped so the 'undisputed' title could remain on the line when he fights Fury in their huge rematch in December. But the IBF, according to its own rules, had to strip Usyk if he did not fight its mandatory challenger next.
That all meant that Dubois, the organisation's interim belt holder, was upgraded to full champion status in June.
The wrong call? Maybe, however, we gave up trying to make sense of the calls made by boxing’s governing bodies a long time ago. It does add a layer of intrigue to Joshua v Dubois though, with AJ now trying to become a ‘three time’ world heavyweight champion and Dubois trying to legitimise his new-found status as a world champion.
What are the form lines?
Since hooking up with new trainer Ben Davison, Joshua (28-3 with 25 wins inside distance) has been absolutely flying to be fair. He is the proven world-level campaigner in this fight, and he seems to have rediscovered his mojo.
AJ was impressive as he carved up Otto Wallin last December, forcing a fifth-round TKO in a performance which oozed spite and controlled aggression.
However, it was the way he performed in that win-or-bust bout with crossover MMA star Francis Ngannou in March that really set tongues wagging.
Ngannou of course had pushed Fury to the limit last year, but was absolutely destroyed inside two rounds by Joshua in Riyadh. Nothing in boxing comes easy at this level, but AJ made it look that way as he did a job on the former UFC star.
Joshua had trained seriously for Ngannou. He came into the fight at a well-conditioned 252 pounds and was all business. The destructive manner of the victory got fans wondering if this version of AJ - seemingly at ease under Davison and a fighter no longer caught between two styles - is actually now the best heavyweight in the world.
The difference in Joshua now after that four-fight win streak of those back-to-back Usyk losses in 2021 and 2022 is palpable - he looks again like the devastating force of old.
Joshua has always been able to bang, but his footwork and speed are somewhat underrated. Yes, he was made to look like a statue by Andy Ruiz Jr in that seismic defeat in New York in 2019, but Ruiz Jr has really quick hands and Joshua never recovered from that first big salvo he took from the Mex-American.
While Joshua isn't super-mobile either, he does switch angles and he does create openings so it will be interesting to see how he handles Dubois. ‘Dynamite’ Dubois 21-2 (20) is the young fighter on the up. His reputation as a destroyer was harmed in stoppage defeats against Joe Joyce in 2020 and Usyk in 2023. In both fights some fans felt he could have continued after he was counted out on his knees, which might be a tad unfair given he suffered a broken orbital bone and nerve damage around his left eye during his stoppage defeat to Joyce.
However, in his last two performances he has really flipped the script after back-to-back stoppage wins over Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic.
Dubois also has a relatively new trainer in Don Charles, and you can see the improvements the gnarled London coach has made in Daniel. He was excellent as he stopped Miller in the last stanza of their big heavyweight non-title fight in Saudi last December.
However Dubois arguably has never looked better than he did last time out when he stopped the feared and previously unbeaten Croatian Hrgovic. Okay, defensively he could have been a bit smarter in that fight, but offensively he was so impressive and it was a career-best win.
So both men are in rare form and that’s what makes this contest so appealing.
This is a huge fight for both fighters, but if Joshua does want to cement his legacy as the best of his era he has to win this and then blast out the winner of Usyk v Fury II.
AJ is a former two-time unified WBO, IBF, and WBA heavyweight champion, who has earned eye-watering sums from the noble art. Nevertheless, he is a fighter who is driven by ambition and competition, and he would love to finish his career as the division’s undisputed king. He will not be able to do that if he comes unstuck against Dubois.
Who are in the respective corners?
It is old school v new school. Don Charles as Dubois’ trainer is an interesting ingredient in this fight because we know that Charles and AJ know each other really well from back in the day (he used to coach a young Joshua when he was in the amateurs). Charles has paid his dues in the sport and is perhaps best known for his brilliant partnership with maverick heavyweight Dereck Chisora.
Davison meanwhile has seemingly come from nowhere. It was, after all, only in 2016 that he appeared unexpectedly in Billy Joe Saunders' corner during a lacklustre BJS win against Artur Akavov.
Lampooned by some as 'Boxercise Ben', Davison actually projects a new age and refreshing approach to the sport, both in terms of his analytical eye and his own self-assurance in the corner. He has a decent stable which now includes red hot heavyweight prospect Moses Itauma and the brilliant McCormack brothers from Newcastle.
Despite his tender years, Davison has already worked the corner in major heavyweight fights (he previously hooked up with ‘The Gypsy King’ Fury when he was on the comeback trail a few years back) and it seems that he has restored Joshua’s fragile confidence and returned him to the seek-and-destroy banger who thrilled us all on his way to the top a decade ago.
Going into his last fight, Davison was AJ’s fourth trainer in his last five bouts. However, he seems settled with Ben and there is a clear chemistry between them.
We keep hearing about sparring rumours between AJ and Dubois. Any truth?
This is an interesting sub-plot to the fight for sure. When Dubois turned over as a professional in 2017, the fistic rumour mill went into overdrive with heavy whispers that he had either dropped or knocked out Joshua in sparring a year earlier.
Normally what happens in sparring stays within the gym walls, and it is a bit of an unwritten rule that it is never spoken about publicly.
However, the build-up to the pair's Wembley war really has been dominated by tittle-tattle of what happened at the GB Performance Institute in Sheffield in 2016.
AJ has even felt moved to give an explanation. Recalling the spar in question, Joshua told Sky Sports: "He just cracked me with a good shot. I stood on my feet.
"I don't know where this whole narrative of someone turned my lights off came from."
Dubois has not really elaborated when pressed, but Joshua’s old Team GB colleague Anthony Fowler - who says he was watching the sparring session - is adamant that Dubois was on the verge of knocking AJ out after wobbling him badly.
Could we be witnessing history in terms of the attendance?
The April 2022 heavyweight world title fight between Fury and Dillian Whyte is the current record holder after 94,000 people crammed into Wembley to watch ‘The Gypsy King’ put on a masterclass.
This Riyadh Season card - topped by Joshua and Dubois - has already been declared a sell-out after the initial 90,000 tickets were snapped up in quick time.
But that man Turki Alalshikh then confirmed that an application for a further 6,000 tickets had been given the green light, which means a likely gate of 96,000. Incredible.
You just cannot help but admire the vision and the ambition of those behind this card. As Don King once mused: "If you cast your bread upon the water and you have faith, you'll get back cash. If you don't have faith, you'll get soggy bread."
The odds, and the bookmaker view?
AJ is no stranger to boxing beneath the iconic arch, having stopped both Alexander Povetkin and Wladimir Klitschko there already. It is a new experience for Dubois, and that is one of the reasons why he is a 100/30 underdog with the odds compilers going in.
Joshua is 2/7 to win by any means, and a 1/2 shot to win by KO, TKO or Disqualification.
For the record, we don’t think that it lasts long. Whoever wins, we feel they will win inside the distance. With this in mind, ‘Under 5.5 Rounds’ at 9/5 looks quite the price.
Undercard standouts?
In the last two years, thanks to the cash injected into the sport by Riyadh Season, the Saudis have pretty much taken over heavyweight boxing.
Money literally seems to be no object to the General Entertainment Authority, and as a result promoters are able to put together stacked bills. This Wembley card is a case in point.
The WBO interim light-heavyweight title fight between 18-0 (13) Joshua Buatsi and Willy Hutchinson, 18-1 (13) should be a cracker. The pair seemingly hate each other if the pre-fight press is anything to go by, and both men can really fight.
Leeds legend Josh Warrington is 33 now but has his sights set on creating one more glory night as he takes on Anthony Cacace for the IBF super-featherweight title. It could be a rough and bloody affair, with Cacace full of confidence after his recent upset win over Joe Cordina.
The highly-regarded Hamzah Sheeraz, 20-0 (16) is also on the bill defending his European middleweight title against teak-tough Tyler Denny while Portsmouth lightweight Mark Chamberlain - a firm favourite of Turki Alalshikh - is also on the bill against fellow unbeaten contender Josh Padley.
Joshua v Dubois: Big fight details and TV coverage
- Where: Wembley Stadium
- Undercard Start time: 1815pm, Saturday Sept 15
- Main Event approx 2300 BST
- TV channel and cost: Sky Sports Box Office (£19.95) and TNT Sports Box Office (£19.99)
Joshua vs Dubois: Undercard
- MAIN EVENT: Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois
IBF heavyweight world title - Josh Kelly vs Ishmael Davis
- Joshua Buatsi vs Willy Hutchinson
WBO 'interim' light-heavyweight belt - Anthony Cacace vs Josh Warrington
IBF super-featherweight world title - Tyler Denny vs Hamzah Sheeraz
- Mark Chamberlain vs Josh Padley