By Trevor McIntyre: Undefeated Daniel Dubois will be facing fellow Queensbury heavyweight Nathan Gorman next on July 13 in a scheduled 12 round contest instead of the fighter that the boxing public wanted to see him face in 2016 Olympic Silver medalist Joe Joyce. The Dubois vs. Joyce fight is being put off for a while. Just how long is unknown.
With undefeated Joyce (8-0, 8 KOs) seen as the better fighter right now than the young 21-year-old Dubois (11-0, 10 KOs), it’s highly possible that the fans won’t see those two face each other for two or three years. It works in Dubois’ favor for the fight against the soon to be 34-year-old Joyce to be strung out into the future in order increase his chances of one day beating him.
In the meantime, Dubois will be fighting the 22-year-old Gorman (16-0, 11 KOs) for the vacant BBBofC heavyweight title on July 13 at the O2 Arena in London, England. The British boxing public likes the Dubois vs. Gorman fight. They see it as interesting fight. Gorman is seen by some boxing fans as the UK version of Andy Ruiz Jr., but less skilled, and much slower in terms of hand speed. Ruiz Jr. has fast hands. The 6’4” Gorman is a slow, plodder type of heavyweight with good power, but poor hand speed and defensive ability. Gorman is similar to Polish fighter Adam Kownacki, but not nearly as good as him. Gorman is more of a flawed version of Kownacki once you take away the skills of the Polish fighter.
Gorman is the perfect opponent for the 6’5” 240-pound Dubois to get another win under his belt as a pro. Dubois clearly isn’t ready to take on a good heavyweight like Joyce, hence we’re seeing him fight Gorman instead. It’s a smart move by Dubois’ promoter in choosing not to put him in with the 6’6” Joyce. What’ll be interesting is to see how long Queensbury chooses to delay making the Dubois vs. Joyce fight. If they put it off too long, it’ll be a pointless fight to make, aside from giving Dubois a vehicle to make him look better than he is. Joyce has zero hand speed, and he’ll likely get slower with each passing year. If the fight with Dubois is delayed long enough, Joyce will be too slow to compete.
Speaking of Joyce, he’ll be fighting on the undercard of the Dubois vs. Gorman card on July 13 against an opponent still to be determined. It’s interesting that an Olympic Silver medalist like Joyce is slotted for the undercard of a fighter with no credentials as an amateur in Dubois. It would seem like it should be the opposite way around. Joyce will be fighting this month against 42-year-old Alexander Ustinov (34-3, 25 KOs) on May 18 at the Lamex Stadium, in Stevenage. UK. Ustinov is coming off of a ninth round knockout loss to Michael Hunter on November 24 in Monte Carlo, Monaco. Before that, Ustinov was beaten by Manuel Charr by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision in a failed effort to capture the vacant WBA ‘regular’ heavyweight title in November 2017. Ustinov was out of the ring for 12 months before facing Hunter last November. Joyce will likely have an easy time beating Ustinov.
“I would have fought Joe Joyce and now I will fight Gorman,” Dubois said. “I am confident in my own ability that I can deal with everyone out there and I’ve got what it takes to beat them. I believe I am way ahead and better than Gorman and on fight night I will prove it.”
There’s little question that Dubois is better than Gorman. The two fighters look worlds apart in terms of talent right now. Dubois is faster, stronger, fitter, and he moves better. Gorman can punch a little, but he needs a stationary target for him to land his shots. Gorman looked infinitely beatable in his last fight against Kevin Johnson last March. Gorman won the fight by a 10 round points decision, but he was eating jabs like they were marshmallows. Gorman did not impress at all in that fight. He just looked like a big, slow guy with heavyweights and a weight problem. Dubois is going to have his way with Gorman unless his chin betrays him.
In Dubois’ last fight against Richard Lartey, he was stunned on several occasions by hard shots from the 6’5″ Ghanaian fighter on April 27. Dubois eventually stopped Lartey in the fourth round, but it was troubling to see how often he was hurt in that fight. Given how Dubois performed against a limited fighter like Lartey, it’s not all that surprising that his management chose not to put him in with Joyce right now. It would clearly be a REALLY bad idea to let Dubois anywhere near a rugged fighter like Joyce right now. Joyce’s size, heavy hands and his superior engine would be too much for Dubois. We would likely see an early stoppage in that one.
Dubois and Gorman are still unranked in the World ranking right now, as they’ve been fighting domestic level opposition for the most part. Dubois and Gorman have both beaten journeyman Kevin ‘Kingpin’ Johnson and Razvan Cojanu. It’s unclear why their promoter matched them against the same guys. Perhaps it was easy fights to make? It might have been done for comparison sake. What’s easy to see from those fights is how much better Dubois looked than Gorman in defeating Johnson and Cojanu. With that said, Dubois didn’t look nearly as good as Anthony Joshua in defeating Johnson. Joshua destroyed Johnson by a second round knockout in 2015, whereas Dubois needed to go the full 10 rounds to beat the same fighter last October.
“I am very confident that I can knock anyone in the world out right now,” Dubois said, seemingly forgetting how much he struggled in his last fight against the un-ranked heavyweight Lartey. “There is no way he will stop me. I accepted this fight straight away and when Frank told me about it, it was on.”
This is a fight that has been talked about the last two years. It’s a meaningless fight in terms of the world stage, as neither of them are ranked. But it’s a good domestic level fight. It would have been a lot more interesting to have seen Dubois and Gorman fight some other guys first like Dave Allen, Sergey Kuzmin, Filip Hrgovic, Michael Hunter or Tony Yoka.
