We are now just days away from Daniel Dubois and Joe Joyce entering the ring at the Church House in Westminster. The all-British heavyweight bout has been postponed three times already this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic wreaking havoc on the sporting schedule, but much to the delight of fight fans, the pair will finally touch gloves on November 28th.
Dubois fast-tracked much of his amateur career, including dropping out of the Team GB squad to compete at the Tokyo Olympics, in favour of turning professional in 2017, and has already established himself as one of Britain’s hottest prospects in the heavyweight division.
In just three years, ‘Triple D’ has already put together a 15-fight unbeaten streak, winning 14 of those bouts via KO/TKO, with American Kevin Johnson the only opponent to take him the distance.
The run of victories has drawn comparisons between Dubois with the likes of Anthony Joshua and Iron Mike Tyson, and the 23-year-old is expected to go all the way to the top of the heavyweight division
However, until now the Greenwich fighter, who is the odds-on favourite to beat ‘The Juggernaut’ in the Joyce vs Dubois odds, is yet to go toe-to-toe with a household name.
Joyce, who is from Putney, also boasts an unbeaten record, with 11 wins (10 via KO/TKO) thus far in his pro career. At 35, ‘The Juggernaut’, who won a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, has 12 years’ experience on Dubois. However, a victory for ‘Triple D’ could finally take his career up a notch.
Dubois has already climbed up to second in the WBO heavyweight rankings, but a victory over Joyce could see him step into the ring with undisputed cruiserweight champion Olexsandr Uysk.
Should Joshua choose to fight Tyson Fury next year, then he would have to vacate his WBO title, blowing the door wide open for mandatory challenger Uysk to compete for the belt, and Dubois could be the man to trade blows with the undefeated Ukrainian.
“I’d definitely take that on,” Triple D said at a recent press conference.
“It’s another big challenge and another big exciting fight. He’s a talented boxer with a good boxing brain and good all-round movement.”
Dubois even claimed that, should a world title shot arise, he is willing to take it behind closed doors – not something many fighters would choose to do.
“If the situation doesn’t improve and it doesn’t look likely there’ll be crowds there, I’d definitely take it. After this fight, if that’s the next option then we’ll definitely take it,” Dubois claimed.
Usyk would definitely be a step up from anyone Dubois has faced in the past, Joyce included, but the young boxer is clearly keen to achieve as much as possible throughout his career, even claiming that he would be ready to take on AJ, should the Watford-born boxer not vacate his belt.
Of course, whilst you can’t fault Triple D’s hunger to succeed, it would be foolish to write off Joyce. He has the credentials to cause an upset, and if anything, he is perhaps the only one of Dubois’ opponents who actually has the ability to beat him.
