Daniel Dubois has won the hearts of boxing fans around the globe for his likeable character and determination in the face of adversity – despite being previously criticised for a lack of grit in the past. As the biggest fight of his life approaches, Dubois has addressed concerns that he takes too many shots ahead of a domestic dust-up against the hard-hitting Anthony Joshua.
‘Triple D’ was unsuccessful in his unified title bid against Oleksandr Usyk twelve months ago, taking a knee for the second time in his career and accepting a knockout defeat, much to the disappointment of British fight fans. However, those who were suspicious of his will in the ring were soon proven wrong, as Dubois bounced back with consecutive career-best stoppage wins of his own against Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic, the latter seeing him pick up the IBF interim title, which was later upgraded to the full world title.
During that contest, many viewers took notice of how much punishment Dubois was subject to during the early stages of the contest, eating an eyewatering 35 power punches in the opening two rounds alone. Meanwhile, Joshua needed to land just five power punches to stop Francis Ngannou in February.
Consequently, former British champion David Price declared that if Dubois was as easy to hit against Joshua as he was against the Croatian, he would expect ‘AJ’ to get the job done without the judges’ intervention.
“He is easy to hit with a right-hand, we saw that in the Hrgovic fight, he was catching him repeatedly with the right-hand but he was walking through them. I think that it is a different story with Anthony Joshua and I think that ‘AJ’ is probably going to win late on.”
Whilst admitting that he took too many right-hands, Dubois boasted of how he fought through the fire and aims to do the same in six weeks’ time, before adding doubt as to whether Joshua’s chin could have coped with the same blows, in an interview with Queensberry Promotions.
“I won’t take them shots. Hrgovic is completely different to AJ, the way that he throws his shots is smooth, he is light and he is quick, he doesn’t load up or anything. It took me a while to get the hang of it but I found a way to deal with it. If you look at the fight properly, I was slipping, just subtly sometimes, doing what I had to do to win.
“That is what I am going to have to do again, break Joshua up, break down what is in front of me and get the victory by any means necessary.
“Could he [Joshua] take them shots that Hrgovic was throwing? Everyone has got an opinion. Let them get on with it. Now it is time to do the work and see what they [the naysayers] say after this one.”
Joshua-Dubois takes place at Wembley Stadium on September 21st, topping a blockbuster bill that features a plethora of British talent.
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