Frank Warren: Whoever Reacts Best To First Punch Will Decide Winner Of Dubois v Joshua
Boxing promoter Frank Warren is convinced the winner of the IBF heavyweight title fight between Daniel Dubois and Anthony Joshua will be whoever reacts best from absorbing the first solid punch.
Dubois (21-2-0 20 KO) makes the first defense of his IBF title against former two-time unified champion Joshua (28-3-0 25 KO) on September 21 in the headline bout of Riyadh Season’s first major show in London at Wembley Stadium.
There is a huge amount of excitement and intrigue surrounding this mega-bout between two British rivals with plenty to lose and gain.
For champion Dubois, he still needs to prove that he is worthy of the world title having received the IBF belt by elevation following Oleksandr Usyk’s decision to vacate ahead of his rematch with Tyson Fury in December. ‘Dynamite’ had won the interim belt in June with a career-best performance against the unbeaten Croatian Filip Hrgovic, whom he stopped in the eighth round in Saudi Arabia.
Joshua, meanwhile, is aiming to become just the sixth fighter in history to become a three-time heavyweight world champion and has been rebuilding his career over the past two years following damaging back-to-back losses to Usyk.
“It’s a cracking fight and it’s got a great undercard. It’s doing unbelievable business and it’s an exciting fight,” Dubois’ promoter Warren told BoxingScene. “For me, the pressure’s all on AJ. I don’t think the pressure’s on my man.”
Naturally, Warren would say this to ramp up pressure on his fighter’s opponent, but the Queensberry Promotions boss is convinced Joshua is yet to be sufficiently tested during his comeback.
Since the rematch loss to Usyk in August 2022, AJ has put together a four-fight win streak, including the last three by stoppage, although Robert Helenius and MMA star Francis Ngannou are nowhere near Dubois’ level. In between those wins, Joshua dominated Otto Wallin, who gave Fury a tough fight.
Dubois, on the other hand, enters the bout on the back of an impressive final-round stoppage win over Jarrell Miller last December and June’s fine victory against Hrgovic.
Joshua may have only been stopped once in his career – the shock loss to Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019 – but he has been dropped on several occasions, and Warren believes that Dubois is in prime position to test the former champion’s chin.
“I look at it two ways. First of all, Wallin didn’t want to be in there. Ngannou, [Joshua] smelled him out and did what he had to do and he done it in style,” Warren said. “He’s not been in with any quality and he hasn’t taken what I would call a solid punch, that’s definite. I want him to come out and throw those right hands at my man because that’s where he is vulnerable.
“He gets countered easy. And I’ll tell you something, that will be the telling point. Whoever gets clipped, how they react to it. Not to be knocked out, but the first solid punch that lands. How do they react to it? I think Joshua will go on the back foot if he gets caught and if he goes on the back foot, that’s my man’s fight.”
