British trainer Peter Fury is not ruling out the chances of Daniel Dubois 21-2 (20) against Anthony Joshua 28-3 (25) if the pair meet at Wembley Stadium in London, England on September 21 as expected.
Fury is the uncle of former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and trained him to defeat Wladimir Klitschko for the WBA, WBO and IBF titles in November 2015.
With the damaging power of both Dubois, the IBF interim titleholder, and Joshua, the former two-time unified champion, Fury is refusing to rule out any result.
“Very interesting one, they can both punch for sure,” Fury told Boxing Social.
“You’d have to go with Joshua because he has that experience and he’s got that sharpness and the speed. He’s mixed at that level as well, that very high level.
“But Dubois has improved in his last few fights. Very much so.
“It’s still a dangerous fight for Joshua, but you’d still have to favour Joshua in it, just for the sheer experience. But Dubois is a big puncher and the little gloves, anything can happen.”
Retired former world champion turned pundit Carl Froch didn’t mince his words when t came to his prediction.
“[Dubois] against Joshua, who hasn’t really beaten anyone of note since being flattened by the fat kid [Andy Ruiz] and losing to [Oleksandr] Usyk twice, who has he fought to say, ‘I’ve done really well, I got a good win.’ Not [Francis] Ngannou. He crumbled on the first after the first right hand he hit him with,” Froch said on his popular YouTube channel.
“If Dubois goes in there and believes in himself, then that could be a tasty fight.”
But Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn cautioned on the weekend that the fight is still yet to be signed.
“There’s nothing done yet. Honestly, genuinely. We’re in final negotiations for AJ’s fight. Nothing is agreed yet. I’m telling you right now, the fight with Dubois is not done and if it don’t get done, we won’t fight,” Hearn told iFL TV.
“We’re focused on fighting Daniel Dubois for the world title at Wembley. But it is not all agreed, there’s still work to be done.
“But 100% myself, his excellency [Turki Alalshikh], George Warren, we’re all working together to make it happen. That’s the absolute focus, no-one’s trying to be clever and hopefully that all gets in order for the big press conference next week.”
Britain’s Joshua, 34, was last in action in March when he knocked out ex-UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou 0-2 in two in Saudi Arabia.
Dubois, 26, is coming off a career-best win over Filip Hrgovic 17-1 (14) in Saudi Arabia at the start of the month. The Brit busted up the previously undefeated Croatian, cutting him over both eyes and forcing the stoppage in the eighth.
