By Jake Tiernan: Joe Joyce foresees a bad outcome for the slow, easy-to-hit behemoth Daniel Dubois when he challenges unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) this Summer.
Joyce (15-0, 14 KOs) is understandably bitter about the 25-year-old Dubois getting a title shot ahead of him against Usyk, as he’s undefeated and owns a knockout victory over the 6’5″, 240+ lb heavyweight.
It looks wrong in the eyes of many boxing fans for Dubois to be getting a title shot ahead of the unbeaten, more accomplished Joyce.
The opposition that Dubois has beaten in his last four fights since his KO loss to Joyce three years ago has been a ragtag group of pedestrian-level fighters that pretty much any fringe-level heavyweight would easily beat.
Dubois (19-1, 18 KOs) quit on one knee in the tenth round when the going got tough against Joyce in 2020 in London, and he was surprisingly dropped three times by obscure, little-known South African Kevin Lerena last December.
The only reason Dubois wasn’t knocked out in that fight was that Lerena backed off entirely and stopped throwing punches.
It was the oddest thing, similar to how Wladimir Klitschko backed off after dropping Anthony Joshua in the sixth round of their fight in 2017. If Lerena had hit Dubois with anything in the second round, he would have finished the job.
“I think Usyk is going to dance around him; Dubois won’t be able to hit him. He certainly couldn’t hit me when we fought, so he’s not going to be able to hit Usyk,” Joyce said to talkSPORT Boxing.
“Dubois hits hard, but you can’t hit someone who is going to be moving, and he’s going to dance rings around him, peppering him with shots,” said Joyce.
The good thing that can come out of Usyk beating Dubois is that it will get rid of one of the pretenders to his throne. With another second defeat, the secondary WBA champion Dubois will likely be dropped to the bottom of the World Boxing Association’s rankings, which is arguably where he deserves to be right now. Usyk would just be putting Dubois where he should be.
Dubois picked up his secondary WBA title from Trevor Bryan, who captured the belt in 2021, beating then-42-year-old Bermane Stiverne. In other words, Dubois didn’t have to beat anyone good to pick up his WBA trinket belt, and it will be, thankfully, discontinued after his fight with Usyk.
“There’s a small chance Dubois hits him with a big shot, but I can’t see it,” said Joyce.
“From beating him [Dubois] and now he’s got a world title shot before me is very annoying, but that’s how boxing works,” said Joyce about Dubois getting a title shot against IBF/WBA/WBO champion Usyk despite him getting stopped by ‘The Juggernaut’ in 2020.