Joe Joyce and Daniel Dubois have agreed to terms

By Boxing News - 04/24/2019 - Comments

Image: Joe Joyce and Daniel Dubois have agreed to terms

By Trevor McIntyre: Unbeaten heavyweights Joe Joyce and Daniel Dubois have officially agreed to terms for a fight for the British heavyweight strap for a still to be determined date and location, according to the latest news. The British Boxing Board of Control is ordering the fight. Dubois’ promoter Frank Warren will be promoting the fight.

Hopefully there’s no cancellation of the fight. This is a tough fight for the much younger 21-year-old Dubois. But even if Dubois gets beaten badly, he’ll still be able to come again. He’s young enough to rebuild his career if things turn sour for him in this fight. It would be a lesson for sure for Dubois and his management when it comes to progression. Going from Richard Lartey to Joyce is a crazy leap up in levels. Lartey is just another beatable guy like the other 10 fighters that Dubois has been fed. Joyce is someone that is good enough to contest for a world title against the likes of Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder if given the chance.

It was thought that Joyce (8-0, 8 KOs) would go in a different direction towards at the European heavyweight title, given his advanced age of 33. To be still messing about at the British domestic level at that ripe age is a little disappointing. Considering Joyce’s late start on his pro career after capturing a silver medal in the 2016 Olympics, he have his career moved a lot quicker by going after world level contenders straightaway instead of facing raw 21-year-old fighters like Dubois (10-0, 9 KOs).

Both guys are powerful, huge and disappointingly slow of hand and foot. Dubois has a little more hand speed than Joyce, but he doesn’t have his work rate, amateur experience or his inside fighting ability. Those areas should be more than enough for Joyce to wear down and stop Dubois inside the distance. The experience level for Joyce is overwhelmingly in his favor in this fight. Dubois has been matched against lesser opposition since he turned pro in 2017. By far the toughest opponent for Dubois’ career is 39-year-old journeyman Kevin “Kingpin” Johnson (34-13-1, 18 KOs), who he beat by a 10 round decision last October. Dubois looked good but far from great in beating the former heavyweight world title challenger Johnson. There was no comparison to the job that Anthony Joshua did against Johnson in stopping him in the second round in May 2015. Joshua blew Johnson out. Dubois couldn’t get rid Johnson no matter how hard he tried.

Although some boxing fans are calling this a 50-50 fight, it’s not. Joyce is way more experienced that Dubois, and he can do a lot more inside the ring in terms of movement, jabbing, punch output and fighting on the inside. Dubois is still a project at this point in his career. He’s got a lot more developing to do before he can fight the big dogs in the heavyweight division. You got to respect Dubois and his promoter Frank Warren for making this fight, because a lot of promoters wouldn’t make this fight.