Journalist Gareth A. Davies does not believe that a rematch between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois will take place in light of the outcome of their showdown last month. He feels there is too much risk of Joshua being “held down and torn apart” by IBF heavyweight champion Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) to face him a second time.
Gareth reckons Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) will rather sit and wait for the outcome of the Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk rematch on December 21. If Fury loses, as most believe he will, Joshua will fight him next. There is too much money available for AJ and Fury to grab so they can’t fight.
Joshua looked out of his league last month, dropping four times in his fifth-round knockout loss to Dubois at London’s Wembley Stadium. If that fight was competitive, a rematch would potentially make sense. It was not competitive, and a rematch would likely be a similar massacre.
“My feeling is it won’t,” said Gareth A. Davies Pro Boxing Fans on whether the Anthony Joshua vs. Daniel Dubois rematch will take place. “In the end, my feeling is that they will say: ‘Let’s wait and see what happens with Fury and Usyk.’ If Fury loses Usyk the second time, we might put Joshua in with Fury now.
“If Fury wins, I think Fury and Usyk will probably have a trilogy. That’s the sense I get from people. My gut feeling is that he (Joshua) won’t rematch Daniel Dubois right away, but if he does, it will probably be in February.
“Punch Resistance Gone? I don’t know about that. I think Daniel Dubois hits really hard,” said Gareth, in response to Carl Froch commenting on his belief that Joshua’s punching resistance was gone after seeing him get obliterated by Dubois.
“He was caught out early and he spent nine minutes trying to recover and keep a foothold in the fight, which he did brilliantly. Then he threw his whole lot in the first minute of the fifth round, and then he was caught. In the meantime he still caught Daniel and caused a few shakes,” said Gareth.
It’s not so much that Joshua’s striking resistance is gone, but rather, he never had any to begin with. The shots that Dubois repeatedly hurt Joshua with on September 21st would have done the same thing to him had he fought him earlier in his career from 2013 to 2017.
Joshua never had a good beard, but that weakness was hidden because his promoter, Eddie Hearn, selectively matched him with lesser fighters. If you look at Joshua’s career resume, it’s filled with beatable guys, many of them old.
Joshua’s best career opponents
– Wladimir Klitschko: 41 years old
– Andy Ruiz Jr.
– Kubrat Pulev: 39
– Oleksandr Usyk
– Francis Ngannou: 37
– Robert Helenius: 41
– Alexander Povetkin: 39
– Carlos Greedy: 36
–Joseph Parker
– Dillian Whyte
– Otto Wallin
“Didn’t you all get out of your seats at that moment in the fifth round and think, ‘He’s going to turn it around. It’s unbelievable, and he’s going to be this concussed guy talking afterwards when he’s won the fight.’” Davies said, talking about the brief moment of success AJ had in the fifth round before his lights out.
Gareth goes a little overboard talking about Joshua backing up Dubois in the fifth round after catching him with a clean right hand. Dubois was unhurt, and it was clear he was playing possum to lure Joshua into a trap.
We saw Dubois do the same thing against Filip Hrgovic last June in Riyadh, and he destroyed him in eight rounds. Dubois took a lot more hard right hands from Hrgovic than against Joshua, and he held up well. The punches Hrgovic hit Dubois with were almost as powerful as the one AJ tagged him with in the fifth.
“My personal view is that Joshua should hold off until Fury and Usyk fight. This is my view rather than taking the immediate rematch against Daniel Dubois. Is it a wise move if he gets crippled and maimed again in a second fight against Dubois,” Gareth said.
Joshua will surely be beaten by Dubois in a second fight, and it won’t matter a bit if the rematch is postponed until February or March next year. Dubois is too powerful, young and solid in the chin department for the aging Joshua to defeat him.
