Anthony Joshua has it in him to avenge his fifth round knockout loss to Daniel Dubois in the rematch, if there is one. Promoter Eddie Hearn believes Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) got it wrong with his fight tactics last Saturday, which resulted in him getting hurt in the first and never recovering.
(Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)
Few fans believe Joshua can win the rematch with Dubois, and think he should focus on fighting Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk or Deontay Wilder. Fighting Dubois would be risky for Joshua, who seemed unable to take a solid shot from him without going down.
Joshua’s corner would have done him a huge favor if they had thrown in the towel after the third round because he didn’t fight back. Although Joshua did land one good shot in the fifth that held Dubois back, he was not seriously hurt as Hearn and some fans believed. Dubois played possum by backing to the corner, taking a few shots before knocking Joshua out with a right hand to the head.
“If we don’t fight Tyson Fury, he should reconsider Daniel Dubois. What are we in the game for? Did you ever know that AJ takes a joke to warm something up?” said Eddie Hearn ifl TV, on what Anthony Joshua should do next. “He wants to be in big fights, and that’s the option in front of him.”
If Hearn was serious about Joshua avenging his loss to Dubois, he wouldn’t have mentioned Fury so often. It seems clear that this is Joshua and Hearn’s preferred option. If they really cared about avenging the loss to Dubois, they wouldn’t be talking about Fury.
“Yeah, I believe he can beat Daniel Dubois,” Hearn continued. “He has to get it right. It is clear that the confidence of Daniel Dubois goes into it, but that fight is only about the first three rounds.”
For Joshua to beat Dubois, he will have to knock him out in the first round in the rematch because he will get hurt quickly if the fight goes past one. Dubois will land his shots, which will be just as hard as the first fight, and Joshua will crumble.
“He’ll want a rematch,” Hearn said when asked what Joshua wants to do next. “When any fighter is beaten, they just want the chance to avenge the defeat. Look at Ruiz. Everyone told me, ‘Don’t reconsider Andy Ruiz.’ Everyone. He (Joshua) was just stopped. He went down five times. He won every round in the rematch.”
It was telling that Joshua failed to mention that he wanted to take the immediate rematch with Dubois when he posted on social media on Monday. If he wanted that fight, he would have said something about fighting Dubois again. He has remained silent on the rematch, which can only mean he is not interested.
“When he lost to Usyk. “Don’t reconsider Usyk.” For me, what else do you do? We have a contract with Riyadh Season for another fight. One of our options is to reconsider Daniel Dubois,” Hearn said.
It was a different story when Joshua lost to Andy Ruiz Jr and Usyk because neither fighter was as powerful as Dubois. Although Ruiz could punch, he was short and overweight for him.
“He always tried to win it. In rounds one, two and three I couldn’t believe the fight was still going on,” Hearn said of Joshua being in poor form after the first.
Joshua tried to win, yes, but he got hurt everywhere in rounds one through three. He fell once in rounds 1, 3, 4 and 5. That knockdown was brutal, and surprisingly Joshua was able to keep getting up.
