Eddie Hearn says he does not see IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois as a legitimate world champion going into his title defense against Hearn-promoted Matchroom fighter Anthony Joshua on September 21 at Wembley Stadium in London.
Hearn’s sour grapes
One senses there is still some bitterness with Hearn over Dubois destroying his Matchroom fighter Filip Hrgovic on June 1 and now ready to do a similar job to his flagship fighter, Anthony Joshua.
If Dubois obliterates Joshua, there won’t be much Hearn can do to pick up the broken pieces of AJ’s shattered career and put them back together for a Tyson Fury payoff.
Hearn considers the IBF heavyweight title vacant, and the Joshua vs. Dubois fight winner will conquer it. It doesn’t matter what Hearn thinks, because Dubois is the IBF champion, and if Joshua loses, his career will be in the mud.
Hear’s to delegitimize Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs) as the IBF world champion should be seen as another of his tricks to make the 27-year-old Daniel question himself to fight below his ability against the soon-to-be 35-year-old Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs).
Joshua will make tons of sweet cash if he prevails against Dubois, as the Tyson Fury fight would be next. However, if Joshua gets blown out of the water by Dubois on September 21, it will put him and Hearn in a terrible position to decide whether to reconsider the young gun or walk into the Fury match if they lost.
AJ needs all the help he can get as he hasn’t fought a live opponent since his second loss to Oleksandr Usyk in 2022. No one knows how Joshua will react against Dubois because it’s such a big step up in class compared to the last four opponents that AJ has fought.
“I don’t like to see people promoted from interim champion to full champion. If the IBF title became vacant and it was Dubois against Hrgovic, my answer would be: ‘Yes’,” Eddie Hearn told Charlie Parson’s. YouTube channel when asked if he sees Daniel Dubois as the legitimate IBF heavyweight champion ahead of his title defense against Anthony Joshua on September 21.
Nobody likes to see fighters elevated, but the fact is, Dubois holds the IBF heavyweight title, and if Joshua wants it to assert itself, he’s going to have to beat him. Joshua and Hearn are making a big deal about capturing the IBF title. If the shoe was on the other foot and Matchroom fighter Hrgovic was the one holding the IBF title, Hearn would have pumped him up and said he was legit.
“But because the (IBF) title was not vacant when they (Dubois and Filip Hrgovic) boxed for it (on June 1), I think for me it is a vacant title. Yes,” Hearn said when asked if the legitimacy of Dubois being the IBF heavyweight champion isn’t there.”
Dubois beat a fighter many saw as the bogeyman in the heavyweight division with his eighth-round knockout of previously undefeated Hrgovic (17-1, 14 KOs) on June 1 in Riyadh. The punches Dubois took from Hrgovic could have knocked Joshua out many times, and it’s admirable that he walked through them to score a knockout.
“Listen, if Dubois beats AJ, 100% world champion, good luck to him. But for me, beating Hrgovic as an interim champion, and being elevated (to full IBF heavyweight champion), that’s different than winning it in the ring. But give him his props. He is gone Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic and Anthony Joshua.
“He’s on a good run, and if he wins this fight, yeah, legit world champion or for sure,” Hearn said of Dubois.
Dubois is the Champion, Period
Daniel has fought much better competition than Joshua in his last four fights, and that is not in question. Hearn has been taking water with Joshua’s ship, trying to stop it completely sinking before he makes amends in 2025 for the cash grab against the completely washed-out 36-year-old Fury.
We’re likely going to see Joshua and Fury head into their fights next year, having lost their preliminary bouts and looking like a couple of old, pampered fighters.
