Battle Of Britain: Joshua v Dubois Preview And Prediction

British behemoths battle it out as former two-time unified champion Anthony Joshua challenges Daniel Dubois for the IBF world heavyweight title at a sold-out Wembley Stadium in London on Saturday night, writes Quintin van Jaarsveld.   

Anthony Joshua (1.23) v Daniel Dubois (4.10)

11 PM Saturday SA time

One of the biggest names in boxing, Joshua returns to the venue of his career-making triumph over Wladimir Klitschko back in 2017 in arguably the best form of his decorated career. He’s the established star, yet he enters Saturday’s showdown as the challenger.

Dubois, long regarded as a future star, upset Filip Hrgovic in June to capture the IFB interim heavyweight title and was elevated to full champion status when Oleksandr Usyk vacated the belt to pursue a rematch with Tyson Fury, whom he’d beaten to become the undisputed champion in May.

For Dubois, it’s a first entry into the big time, while for Joshua, it’s a familiar stage.

For years, rumours have swirled that Dubois, then still a young team Great Britain fighter, dropped Joshua during a sparring session. Joshua denies this, while Dubois, after being pressed on the issue, noted that it did indeed happen.

Sparring, however, is nothing like the pressure cooker environment of fighting for a world championship in front of nearly 96,000 fans and the time to deliver is on Saturday night.

A blue-chip prospect, it took longer than expected for Dubois to break through but the 27-year-old has come of age over the last year. After a somewhat controversial loss to Usyk last August, Dubois stopped Jarrell Miller in the 10th round in December before knocking out Hrgovic in the eighth round of their bout in June to capture the belt.

Now confident, Dubois fully understands his strengths and has worked a lot on his weaknesses. He’s a terror who can knock out any man in the heavyweight division, hence his nickname “Dynamite.” His record stands at 21-2 with 20 knockouts, including rallying to slay South Africa’s Kevin Lerena in 2022, with his only decision win coming over Kevin Johnson in 2018.

Joshua has well and truly put the back-to-back losses he suffered to Usyk in 2021 and 2022 behind him and is back to his best. In fact, he’s more dangerous than ever. The 2012 London Olympics gold medallist is still a technical wizard, however, he’s now a marauder on top of that.

Since linking up with Ben Davidson, Fury’s former trainer, he’s found aggression, clarity and the missing puzzle piece that was a strong mentality. He’s no longer hesitant to let his hands; whether it was fear or self-doubt, it has evaporated and the Joshua heading into Wembley is a confident killer.

That new-found killer instinct saw him starch his last three opponents, Robert Helenius, Otto Wallin and most recently, Francis Ngannou in March. The former UFC champion gave Fury all he could handle and “AJ” flatlined him in two rounds to underline his terrifying transformation and improve his record to 28-3 with 25 knockouts.

There’s plenty of fire between these two titans, who’ve come close to blows during the build-up to the all-British blockbuster. On Saturday, they’ll finally settle the score and prove who the better man truly is.

Joshua is vastly superior technically and tactically and has rediscovered his jab to great effect. He’s also faster and more agile despite being seven years older than his opponent. His footwork is in a different league, which will stand him in good stead as Dubois can finish a fight with a single shot. His experience of massive world title fights is another key edge, while he’ll also have a four-inch reach advantage.

Where Dubois does match Joshua is his engine and work rate. He has a good chin but a questionable spirit as he showed when he quit against Usyk. Defensively, he leaves a lot of openings and ate almost 50 significant strikes in the first five rounds in his last fight.

With that in mind, I don’t see this fight – scheduled for 12 rounds – going over seven-and-a-half rounds, which is the over-under. Joshua should simply be too fast, sharp and accurate and should become a three-time champion.