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By: Sean Crose
With Oleksandr Usyk giving up his IBF heavyweight title this week, former IBF titlist Anthony Joshua will battle Daniel Dubois (the current titlist by virtue of having been the number one contender) for the belt. A scheduled 12 rounder between the two Englishmen will take place September 21st at Wembley Stadium in London. This is a big fight, of course, but it’s also an interesting fight, as well. While most will argue (rightfully) that Usyk remains the heavyweight king (he’s defeated both Joshua and Dubois, after all), Joshua and Dubois are high level fighters who are also exciting to watch.
What’s more, Dubois nearly (some say definitely) dropped Usyk last year in Poland. Although Usyk ended up winning their fight, there was no denying Dubois was, at the very least, able to have his moments against the now legendary Ukrainian. Furthermore, Usyk will be rematching Tyson Fury this December, a man neither Joshua nor Usyk has ever met in the ring. The bottom line? The winner of this match between Joshua and Usyk stands to have a bright future ahead of him. While each man has lost a few fights, the days of boxers being disqualified by fans for suffering a defeat seems to fortunately be coming to an end…and not a moment too son.
A small number of losses aside, the first thing that comes to mind with both Joshua and Dubois is the fact that these men can hit. Hard. Thunderously hard. Low blow or not, Dubois’ shot to Usyk’s torso last year clearly hurt the gutsy champion. That’s no surprise, however, as all but one of Dubois’ twenty one victories have come by way of knockout or early stoppage. Since the Usyk battle, Dubois has stopped Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic respectively.
Joshua, of course, needs no introduction. At one point the man held three out of the four major heavyweight titles. He stopped the likes of Wladimir Klitschko and Alexander Povetkin and was once on the cusp of fighting for the undisputed heavyweight championship himself (boxing politics – along with the American legal system – kept that much ballyhooed fight with Fury from happening). Things weren’t looking that well for the towering Englishman after losing two fights, along with his belts, to Usyk a few years back, but he’s since come back strong, winning four in a row. His last fight, a two round destruction of UFC legend Francis Ngannou, was the stuff of fighter nightmares.
Things reportedly became so intense between Joshua and Dubois on Wednesday, the two men had to be separated while recording pre-fight promotional material. Joshua responded to the incident by posting a picture of himself on social media in a tank top looking intense. The image was accompanied with the following words:
“Reality’s about to hit him.”