Former WBO cruiserweight champion, Lawrence Okolie, has claimed that Daniel Dubois is the hardest puncher in the heavyweight division as the 25-year-old prepares for his unified title challenge against Oleksandr Usyk later this month.
Of his nineteen professional wins, Dubois has won by knockout in all but one, going the full ten rounds with former world title challenger, Kevin Johnson, back in 2018.
The Brit’s one loss saw his eye socket fractured in a tenth-round stoppage defeat to Joe Joyce. However, since succumbing to the constant pressure of ‘The Juggernaut’, Dubois has had four outings, completing just a combined ten rounds, with early finishes as prevalent as ever.
Most recently there were concerns when he was truly knocked down for the first, second and third time in his career in the opening round of his contest with Kevin Lerena after sustaining a knee injury. He would fight back and win by knockout in the third.
Dubois has recovered from any damage and is poised to take on the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight champion as mandatory challenger.
In an interview with TNT Sports, former stablemate, Okolie, revealed his belief that Dubois is the hardest hitting heavyweight in the world.
“I was saying to Shane [McGuigan] that he [Dubois] is probably the hardest puncher of the lot. Obviously, there is more to boxing than just punching power, but it’s good to have.”
Dubois will travel to Wroclaw, Poland to face Usyk on August 26 for the unified titles, with Denys Berinchyk and Aadam Hamed, son of Naseem Hamed, appearing on the undercard of the TNT Sports Box Office event.
As for Okolie, he lost his world title to Chris Billam-Smith back in May and he has reportedly activated the rematch clause to run it back.