Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn officially announced today a September 21 world title fight between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois. After Oleksandr Usyk vacated the belt, interim titleholder Dubois became the full champion and Joshua will now have another opportunity to challenge for a world championship. Here’s some of what Hearn had to say on the upcoming fight.
Hearn on officially announcing Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois for IBF title
“We know that prior to the 5 vs 5 that the Hrgovic fight was an option, and I always said if this fight can be for the world heavyweight title then we’ll fight Daniel Dubois. AJ will fight anybody. Now you got two Brits, the world heavyweight title, 100,000 people, Riyadh Season card, the undercard off the charts. September 21st, massive, massive day and night for British boxing.”
On Joshua having the chance to take the belt off of Dubois, who was elevated
“I love it because AJ gets to dethrone a champion. When he becomes a three time world heavyweight champion every one of his victories will have been against world heavyweight champions, not a vacant belt, not anything like that.
“For me, I’ve always believed that he will become undisputed champion and this is the step before that. If he wins this fight he will fight for the undisputed world heavyweight championship, I have no doubt. And I believe that’s where destiny will take him.”
On how he thinks Joshua matches up with Dubois in the ring
“I think it’s a tough fight. I think he’s quite active, Dubois. I think he won’t be quite as active, you saw him take a lot of punishment against Hrgovic. AJ’s a different type of puncher to Hrgovic. You cannot walk onto right hands, you’ll go straight to sleep. So I think he’ll be smarter but he’ll be active and he’ll want to try and land the shots on Anthony.
“He believes he’s got the power to hurt everybody and he does, so he’s got to look to land those shots. And in doing so he’s going to be entering the realm of fire and that’s why it’ll be a tremendous fight.”