WHO NEXT FOR DANIEL DUBOIS?
Daniel Dubois claimed one of the year's biggest victories last Saturday as he powered through the former two-time heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua in front of a record-breaking crowd of 98,000 at Wembley Stadium.
Despite stoppage victories over Jarrell Miller & Filip Hrgovic in his previous two fights, the 27-year-old went into the clash as a big underdog, but after dropping AJ at the end of the first round, it was all one-way traffic.
Here, we look at five fights for Dubois which COULD happen next, and rank them in order of demand.
Oleksandr Usyk vs Tyson Fury 2 winner
The BIGGEST fight in heavyweight boxing right now is undoubtedly the rematch between the current undefeated unified heavyweight champion of the world Oleksandr Usyk and former WBC world champ Tyson Fury in December.
Usyk claimed victory in the first fight between the pair earlier this year and he’ll be hoping for a repeat in Saudi.
The Ukrainian already has a win over Dubois, albeit in a fight overshadowed with controversy after the Brit dropped the champ with a controversial ‘low blow’ before Usyk went on to get the stoppage.
If Fury wins, you’d imagine that a trilogy fight would be made with Usyk, but with Fury and Dubois under the same Queensberry banner, a fight between the pair would be fairly straightforward to make and the carrot of undisputed being dangled may well be enough to prize The Gypsy King into taking on his younger stablemate.
Joseph Parker
Away from the winner of the Usyk and Fury rematch, one of the most popular fights for Dubois is undoubtedly against former WBO world champ Joseph Parker.
A fighter who is now in a similar situation to Dubois was, the New-Zealander has suffered three defeats in his 38-fight career so far but he has impressed recently when securing back-to-back wins over Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang.
He’s a fighter with plenty of momentum and he will most certainly provide a stern test for Dubois.
Anthony Joshua
The third option for Dubois is another fight with Joshua.
Joshua reportedly had a rematch clause in his contract for this fight which means if he exercises it then Dubois may not have a choice but to face him next.
Will it be the most popular fight with the fans? Probably not. Will it still sell out Wembley Stadium again? More than likely.
Despite Dubois’s dominance in the first bout, this is heavyweight boxing and when you carry the power of AJ, until you’re knocked out, you’re still very much in the fight.
There are enough people who believe that AJ can beat the champ in the rematch so even though it’s not the first choice fight for Dubois next, it’s still one that makes sense.
Zhilei Zhang
Big Bang Zhang. One of the most exciting fighters in boxing and a man who possesses sickening power from that enormous southpaw stance of his.
After losing his undefeated record to Filip Hrgovic, he recorded back-to-back stoppage wins over Joe Joyce, ironically the man who took Dubois’s undefeated record.
It’s one big merry-go-round and with Dubois’s popularity growing worldwide by the day, don’t be surprised if he’s lured into a trip to China to take on their national hero in what would be a fight of unprecedented levels of enormity in Asia.
Martin Bakole
The final fight which makes sense for Dubois is one with the hard-hitting Martin Bakole.
After producing a career-best performance in his last fight where he annihilated the undefeated American Jared Anderson, Bakole’s team have already been very vocal about past sparring sessions between himself and Dubois.
Dubois is clearly someone who likes to do his talking in the ring but with countless amounts of goading from Bakole’s team, don’t be surprised to see him bite at the bait and give the Congolese fighter a crack at his world title in early 2025.