Eddie Hearn: 'Daniel Dubois is a complete novice; Joe Joyce gets hit a lot'

During a conference call, ostensibly to promote Friday’s Matchroom Boxing USA card headlined by Danny Jacobs vs Gabriel Rosado, company chief Eddie Hearn was asked (by us) for his take on the Daniel Dubois vs Joe Joyce heavyweight showdown that takes place the following evening, and where the winner will sit in the queue for unified champion Anthony Joshua. It’s fair to say the eloquent promoter did not hold back.

"It’s a good fight, and an interesting fight," he began, in a lengthy answer you can watch in full in the video, which includes his prediction. "The problem is with Joe Joyce, you watch Joe Joyce and you say, ’He is absolutely terrible.’ But obviously he’s not. He’s extremely fit, he’s extremely durable, but I keep going back to the fact that he gets hit a lot.
"Daniel Dubois clearly hits very hard, so I think Joe’s got to be careful in the early stages of the fight. Certainly Dubois is a complete novice in the heavyweight division. So the sensible thing is Dubois early or Joyce to weather the storm and outlast him.
"The winner will be British and European champion and I think that’s about right with the level they’re at, at the moment. The winner could end up fighting [Oleksandr] Usyk for a vacant world title."