British heavyweight prospect Daniel Dubois has always been talked about as the standout youngster amongst Britain’s future heavyweight world title challengers.
And, despite Dubois being just 25 years old, his trainer, Shane McGuigan, has revealed that we may see a fight for a world title very soon.
Dubois was on track to be the future of the division for British boxing fans, winning his first fifteen fights and knocking out all but one of those opponents. That was until he finally met his match in the now highly-rated Joe Joyce.
With Joyce now considered a ‘top five’ heavyweight by most boxing fans, it’s certainly nothing to be ashamed of for Dubois, and he’s now officially in rebuilding mode.
Although that loss did stunt Dubois’ rise to the top of the division, he will likely have learnt more in those ten rounds than in the forty-three prior. Since defeat, ‘Dynamite’ has amassed three wins in just seven rounds of fighting, most notably beating American Trevor Bryan to win the WBA ‘Regular’ title.
McGuigan believes that this belt has put his man in an extremely strong position, and expects him to be called as a mandatory challenger for Oleksandr Usyk’s WBA world title, as per Sky Sports.
“He’s highly, highly ranked with the WBA.
We get that shot, next in line. Because Usyk’s got all the other belts, he’s got the IBF, the WBO and the WBA, Fury’s got the WBC. Out of the IBF, WBA and WBO, Daniel is the first in line, the WBA is the first in line to get the shot,
It’s why Dubois is fighting a southpaw opponent next in Kevin Lerena. We need that prep. He’s a slippery opponent, a guy that’s come up from cruiserweight, decent mover, good head movement. He’s not like Usyk, he doesn’t dart around on his feet but he’s got the ability to move his head and he makes himself small, he’s hard to hit clean. It’s a good test for us.
We need to get through this and see how he does with a southpaw.”
Despite aiming for a fight with Usyk in the near future, it appears that the Ukrainian is intending to fight Tyson Fury for the undisputed title – a fight which would take priority over a mandatory defence against Dubois.
This would mean that Dubois could, in theory, be the first in line for a shot for the undisputed crown once a four-belt champion is decided for the first time since Lennox Lewis in 2003. McGuigan welcomes it.
“We could easily be boxing Tyson Fury soon and yes Dan’s only 25. He needs to get let off the leash at some stage.”
For now, Dubois must focus on getting past South Africa’s Kevin Lerena, who he fights on December 3rd on the undercard of Tyson Fury versus Derek Chisora.