By Tim Royner: British promoter Frank Warren says he’s going to put unbeaten heavyweights Daniel Dubois and Nathan Gorman in with each other at the end of this year. For that fight to happen, Dubois (9-0, 8 KOs) must win his important 10 round clash against 6’7″ former heavyweight world title challenger Razvan Cojanu (16-5, 9 KOs) this Friday night at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington, UK.
There will be a lot of disappointed boxing fans if the Dubois vs. Gorman fight isn’t made. It might have been better to stay quiet about the fight until it’s made. At least that way there wouldn’t be upset fans if the Dubois-Gorman fight failed to take place.
Gorman (15-0, 11 KOs) is scheduled to fight later this month against an opponent still to be determined on March 23 at the Leicester Arena, in Leicester, UK.
“Daniel Dubois and Nathan Gorman will meet later this year in a heavyweight fight between two of the division’s brightest prospects,” Warren said in his column at the dailystar.co.uk. “I’m not afraid to match stars early in their careers.”
This is potentially bad match-up for the slow 6’5″ Dubois in facing a puncher like the 22-year-old Gorman. Dubois, 239 lbs, is easy to hit, and he would have to take a lot of heavy shots from Gorman to have a chance of wearing him don and stopping him. The 21-year-old Dubois might not last into the later rounds to get to Gorman.
It would be a fight where Dubois would have to get to the 250 lb Gorman early for him to win that fight. Gorman is coming off of an impressive 12 round unanimous decision win over Razvan Cojanu in his last fight in December. Gorman totally dominated the 6’7″ Cojanu in winning a wide 12 round unanimous decision by the scores 119-109, 119-109 and 10-108. It’s kind of a bad look that Dubois is now fighting Cojanu as well. It would be better for Dubois to face someone that isn’t coming off of a loss like Cojanu. Dubois isn’t going to get any credit for beating Gorman’s leftovers.
It’s early in the careers of these two heavyweight to have them facing one another, but it could turn out to be a brilliant move by Warren to make this fight. He took a big risk of putting former unified heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in with WBC champion Deontay Wilder on December 1 last year with the two of them fighting to a 12 round draw.
Even if Fury had lost the fight to Wilder by knockout, his popularity would have still been greatly increased from having taken the big risk in facing Wilder. Warren sees the Dubois vs. Gorman fight as being one that is similar to the first Carl Froch vs. George Groves fight in 2013 in which both guys emerged more popular. It didn’t hurt Groves’ career that he was stopped in the 9th round by Froch. Their rematch was even bigger in filling Wembley Stadium in London, England in May 2014. Groves lost that fight too in getting stopped in the 6th round, but he made a lot of money.
Warren says Dubois will spar with unbeaten heavyweight contender Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller after this week’s fight with Cojanu to help him get ready for his June 1 fight against IBF/WBA/WBO champion Anthony Joshua. Warren sees the sparring with Miller as something that will improve him.
“He will also get a chance to improve himself further when he goes to spar Jarrell Miller in New York following this week’s fight,” Warren said about Dubois.
It’ interesting that Dubois could be used to potentially improve Miller enough for him to beat Joshua. That would be amusing if Miller pulls off the upset in beating the undefeated Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs) in their fight at Madison Square Garden in New York. Dubois will be given a lot of credit if Miller is able to dethrone Joshua.