Anthony Joshua faces new IBF World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Dubois on September 21 at Wembley Stadium.
Dubois benefited from former undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk – who has beaten both men – vacating the belt, but immediately moves into the toughest fight of his career as a first defence.
He comes off the back of two hard-fought wins over Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic – performances trainer turned analyst Teddy Atlas told The Stomping Ground were extremely important for his development.
“Dubois has turned a corner. He has become a real pro. In the Joyce fight, in the fight against Usyk, he broke down mentally. Yeah there was a low blow, controversy, but at the end of the day he broke down. Then he came back against Miller and Hrgovic to redeem himself. He became a pro … He won a victory over himself, the most important opponent in the world.”
Atlas, however, has noticed a disregard for defence in Dubois’ work – something he can’t afford when facing up to Joshua.
“There’s one thing that he does has to improve on and that is his defence … He walked through [Hrgovic’s] punches and instilled his physicality on him and took all kinds of punishment. It was like raindrops hitting a windshield. I was very impressed … but he cannot do the same thing against Joshua. Joshua punches too hard and too accurate with the right hand.”
The former coach of heavyweight champion Michael Moorer then also praised Joshua, and said it would be a knockout victory if Dubois doesn’t improve technically.
“Joshua’s in a good place mentally and of course technically with Ben Davison. If [Dubois] expects to take the same punishment and walk through it those first few rounds, it ain’t happening. So unless they improve on the technical side to avoid those punches, no. It could be a short night.”
