Anthony Joshua weighed in at 252.3 lbs, and IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois came in at 248.4 lbs on Friday when they meet in their 12-round clash this Saturday night at Wembley Stadium in London. Both fighters showed a bit of emotion when they faced each other, staring at each other with empty eyes like two sharks ready to eat.
The weight of two-time heavyweight champion Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs), who is always in the 250s, would be a bad thing if he were to gasp if forced into a quick fight by Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs).
It is believed that Dubois will force Joshua to contend with the opening bell, pushing his aging body. That might be too much for AJ, who has a lot of miles on the odometer and isn’t ready to fight that way.
If you were to build a fighter in a laboratory designed to beat Joshua, you’d end up with Dubois. Of all the heavyweights in the division, Dubois is the perfect embodiment of the destruction machine Joshua is.
Joshua will not be able to lose this fight, especially by knockout, because he is coming off a four-fight, two-year rehab. He won’t be able to do that again after a potentially devastating loss to Dubois on Saturday night. Joshua is very rich, he has an estimated $80 million, which is expected to be increased $100 million after taking Saturday night.
An embarrassing knockout loss to Dubois could ruin what’s left of Joshua’s sanity, putting him in a bad shape that will make him ineligible for future fights against Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.
Access to a black partition shed four days won’t help Joshua if a tough Dubois blows him up the fight will be very difficult for AJ.
“I agree. He has a personality where I don’t think that brings him down,” said Ade Oladipo speaking to Pro Boxing fans when he was asked if Daniel Dubois could face this tough fight against star Anthony Joshua in front of a crowd of 96,000 fans on Saturday.
“There are young people who cannot enter the field, and it is normal. There are others that it just kills them and swallows them [when dealing with stress]. I don’t know if that will set Dubois apart because he has that kind of personality where his head is in the clouds sometimes. Maybe that’s a good thing this time.”
Dubois doesn’t show emotions when under pressure. He’s like a seek-and-destroy android that follows his prey. It’s bad news that an older fighter like Joshua is going to fight a guy like Dubois. Joshua is fine with guys like Otto Wallin and Francis Ngannou but not against a predator like Dubois.
“I don’t think it will put him in the category. He’s going to go out there and hear, ‘I belong here. I am the champion. I went to Poland,” said Ade talking about Dubois.” I beat Miller. I beat Hrgovic. It’s my time,’ and you don’t know how it’s going to work, and we don’t know until someone’s there. I think you will do well.
“If he loses to Dubois, it will be a knockout. This battle is not about points. If AJ gets knocked out by Dubois, I think it’s a very difficult comeback. I wonder if AJ will want to come back. He will be 35 next month. I would wonder if he would like to descend into the ranks of Jermaine Franklin, Helenus, and Otto Wallin. Do you want to build yourself again?” Ade said.
Joshua is too old and has too many miles on him to rebuild four fights to bounce back from a loss to Dubois on Saturday night. Although Joshua says he has “a lot” of time left in his career, he will change his mind if Dubois destroys him on Saturday night.
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