By Declan Taylor
ON Saturday night at Wembley Stadium, Daniel Dubois will defend his IBF world heavyweight title against a man who has won and lost it twice already, Anthony Joshua. A record-breaking crowd of 96,000 is expected through the turnstiles and the majority of them, as well as the oddsmakers, will expect the older man to win back his title at the home of football. We take a look at where this potential classic could be won and lost.
ANTHONY JOSHUA – KEYS TO VICTORY
Right hand power
An obvious one, right off the bat. There is no denying the power Anthony Joshua carries in both hands but the right one, whether thrown straight down the pipe or as an uppercut through the middle has helped him secure 25 of his 28 career wins inside the distance.
That straight right hand has been particularly effective of late, seeing off Robert Helenius and Francis Ngannou in style, but he has always possessed the ability to slip outside the orthodox jab and counter with a cross over the top. Dubois, meanwhile, shipped a number of them against Filip Hrgovic and the chances are he will do so again on Saturday night.
Joshua flattened Robert Helenius in 2023. Will he do the same to Daniel Dubois?
Training team
Joshua searched far and wide for a coach to bring him on after ending his long alliance with Robert McCracken in 2021 but it turns out the answer he was looking for was only down the road in Harlow, Essex. Joshua teamed up with Ben Davison, and his team of Barry Smith and Lee Wylie, ahead of December’s clash with Wallin and it is already paying dividends.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is adamant that it will be Team AJ’s ability to come up with the perfect gameplan for Dubois that will win him the fight. “He’s gone into fights a bit blind before,” Hearn said. “But they will tell him exactly what he has to do to win this fight, and it’s not rocket science, this one. Dubois makes a lot of mistakes.”
Anthony Joshua speaks to his head coach Ben Davison during the media workout ahead of facing Otto Wallin on December 23 in Riyadh (Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
Experience
This is Joshua’s third fight at Wembley and fifth at a major stadium. He won a gold medal at the Olympics 12 years back and, at 34 years old, he is a two-time heavyweight champion who has just about seen it all during his life as a professional. When the record-breaking crowd have crammed into Wembley and Liam Gallagher has finished his throwback set, there is no doubt that Joshua will be able to handle the occasion with aplomb.
Will that matter when the fight starts? It’s impossible to say, but there seems little chance of him freezing. Dubois boxed Oleksandr Usyk at a stadium in Wroclaw, Poland so this is not his first rodeo but if he freezes due to the magnitude of this event, even only for a second, Joshua could take him out.
DANIEL DUBOIS – KEYS TO VICTORY
Chin
Dubois has been stopped twice, once when he suffered a fractured eye socket against Joe Joyce, and once at the hands of the undisputed heavyweight champion Usyk, who also beat Joshua twice. But in his two most recent victories, against Jarrell Miller and Hrgovic, which both came inside the distance, Dubois had to walk through the fire to get them.
We have seen it with Joyce, however, that there is a chance that a granite chin can let you down at any moment in heavyweight boxing but if his holds up here this one will be very interesting. What happens if Joshua hits Dubois with the kitchen sink for the first three or four rounds and he is still standing? Then Dubois might get the chance to put the pressure on a tiring challenger.
Jab
Both of these men are big, stand-up orthodox boxers who possess good jabs but Dubois has always attacked very well with his. It often starts slightly further out than his opponent’s, allowing him to spear it through the target as quickly as possible. British prospect Moses Itauma, who has sparred just about every leading heavyweight on the planet, says it was Dubois who gave him the most trouble simply because of the jab, and particularly the starting position of it. This fight could well come down to a battle of the jabs and, if so, Dubois will be well placed to work his way to victory, or at least an opening for a big right hand.
Daniel Dubois breaks the will of Jarrell Miller during their heavyweight fight at Kingdom Arena on December 23, 2023 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
Finishing instinct
It is no surprise that Dubois’ promoter Frank Warren is backing his man, who he signed as a teenager, to win on Saturday night but the Queensberry Promotions boss has a point when he argues that ‘Dynamite’ might just be the most devastating finisher in the division. All but one of his 21 wins have come early and the only man to take him the distance was the durable Kevin Johnson six years ago.
We have seen Joshua dropped and stopped in his career and even in fights he has won, like against Dillian Whyte, he has been wobbled. Warren suggests that if Dubois gets even a sniff of a crisis for Joshua, the 27-year-old will jump on it. Not one to overthink things and stay reserved, Dubois will empty the tank in search of a finish, and he usually gets it.
Daniel Dubois knocks out Trevor Bryan (David Martin-Warr/DKP)
