As Daniel Dubois and Anthony Joshua make final preparations for their world heavyweight showdown for the IBF title on Saturday, there will be speculation about how the outcome of this fight will affect the heavyweight division.
(Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)
Anthony Joshua is the bookies’ favorite to win this fight. If Joshua emerges victorious on Saturday, he will become a three-time world heavyweight boxing champion and join Muhammad Ali, Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield as the only boxers to have won the world title on three separate occasions. On the face of it, this would be a tremendous achievement for Joshua.
However, the background of this fight suggests otherwise. On 15 April, Dubois won the vacant IBF interim heavyweight title after beating top contender Filip Hrgović. Dubois then became full IBF champion on June 26 after Oleksandr Usyk vacated the title. This means that Dubois became a world champion by default and not by beating the reigning IBF champion. Furthermore, Dubois lost his world title fight against Oleksandr Usyk in August 2023.
So if Joshua beats Dubois on Saturday, it might be hard to argue that Anthony Joshua would then be a three-time heavyweight world champion in any meaningful sense. Since AJ would beat a fighter who only won the IBF belt by default, Joshua’s claim to be a three-time world heavyweight boxing champion would have less legitimacy. Former super-middleweight world boxing champion and pundit Carl Froch says it best when he argues that any Joshua victory over Dubois would be less impressive as AJ would have taken the IBF title away from rightful champion Usyk – a fighter against who lost Joshua.
In the event that AJ wins on Saturday, it’s arguable that the best he can hope for is Tyson Fury beating Oleksandr Usyk in their rematch on December 21st. This would open up the prospect of another all-British clash between Fury and Joshua sometime next year to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. A Usyk victory on December 21st will not be good news for AJ as he has already lost twice to Usyk.
In light of the above, Daniel Dubois would have more to gain if he beats Joshua on Saturday. A win for Dubois would lend credence to his claim that he is now an elite fighter, and would provide him with lucrative opportunities of world championship fights against Fury and/or Usyk.
Despite reportedly attracting a crowd of over 90,000 to Wembley Stadium in England, the Dubois-Joshua fight seems to pale in comparison to the rematch between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia in December for the right to be named unified world heavyweight champion.
