Anthony Joshua will not be defeated by IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois on Saturday night. Joshua’s aging and two-year rebuild after back-to-back losses to Oleksandr Usyk prevent him from losing again after all that work.
(Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)
Promoter Eddie Hearn says “losing” is not on AJ’s thinking process, but he can still lose to Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs). That would be disastrous for Joshua, who is likely to abandon his plans to face Tyson Fury in 2025 in a big British fight.
“They’ve been saying that since the Ruiz 2 fight. ‘If he loses this, is his career over?'” said Eddie Hearn on the DAZN boxing channel about Anthony Joshua in the fight he must win against Daniel Dubois on Saturday night.
“You have to work your way up the board, and if you fall down, it’s a long way back. After the defeat of Usyk, he did that. He worked for himself and got back to the top of the board, on Saturday he got the chance to be King again,” said Hearn about Joshua.
Hearn should be worried about a possible loss to Joshua because he has put in all that time and worked on his long climb back to this season. It took two years for Joshua to come back, and if he is beaten by Dubois, everything will be ruined. Hearn would be better off bringing Joshua back sooner.
“He is being beaten. You fall down again, and the process of rebuilding is difficult; it’s a long process, and it’s a long road back. For us, there is only one thing to do and that is to win. “Losing is not even in the imagination,” said Hearn.
“His age. There is more stress with age. Try to stack up a little bit, you know?” promoter Frank Warren said of Joshua being up there in age.
Hearn may not want to say it’s possible for Joshua to lose to Dubois, but it’s certainly true. He may lose because this is the type of boxing that Joshua has never faced during his playing career.
Even when AJ fought Wladimir Klitschko in 2017, he wasn’t facing someone on Dubois’ level. Klitschko was 41 years old, past it, not the brave and aggressive fighter Joshua will face on Saturday night.
“That is the beauty of this war. He is not someone who comes off a loss that affects him a little. “He’s not someone who walks out of a fight when it comes to the heart,” said Hearn.
“Dubois looks like he has put a piece between his teeth again. Doubts and questions that have been there in the past [are no longer there]. He looks like a new fighter.”
Dubois has changed since losing to Oleksandr Usyk in 2023. He’s fierce now, and he won’t back down or give up when the going gets tough.
He was charged with a foul in his match against Usyk when the referee called for not giving him credit for knocking him out in the fifth round when he dropped him with a body shot.
“AJ, the questions ‘Do you still have it?’ “He looks better than ever under Ben Davison,” said Hearn.
Joshua looks better than ever due to the limited level of opposition he has faced in these two fights since hiring Ben Davison as his trainer. These weren’t the world class fights Joshua recently hit with his victories over Francis Ngannou and Otto Wallin. Dubois is the real deal, and we’ll see if Joshua really is “better than ever” or if this is just lip service from Hearn.
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