Eddie Hearn has weighed in on Daniel Dubois’ shot at Oleksandr Usyk, and has claimed that another British heavyweight would be more deserving of the fight.
With an undisputed clash with Fury now dead, the WBA have ordered that Uysk face Dubois next, giving the two respective teams until the start of next month to negotiate terms, at which stage purse bids will be ordered.
Speaking to IFL TV, Hearn questioned what ‘DDD’ had done to merit the shot, and said Joe Joyce would be a more worthy recipient.
“I like Daniel Dubois, but who on earth has he beat to become mandatory for Oleksandr Usyk? Trevor Bryan, Kevin Lerena and Bogdan Dinu?”
“Listen, fair play to him. I think Joe Joyce should be getting a shot well ahead of him, but good luck to him.”
“I don’t necessarily believe he will be ready for that fight.”
Joyce handed Dubois the only loss of his professional career to date back in 2020, when he stopped him in the tenth round of their British title fight behind closed doors.
Since then, Joyce has claimed wins over the likes of Carlos Takam and Joseph Parker and, now holder of the WBO interim world title, many feel Joyce is the division’s number one contender.
‘The Juggernaut’ is back in action in just over a week’s time, when he takes on dangerous Chinese southpaw Zhilei Zhang at the Copperbox.
Though Joyce goes into the contest a firm favourite, ‘Big Bang’ proved last time out against Filip Hrgovic he can more than mix it with some of the best names at heavyweight, and will be plenty confident he can upset the applecart on April 15th.