Derek Chisora, the popular British heavyweight, reveals that superstar Anthony Joshua, with a glass jaw, will fight the winner of the June 1st fight between contenders Daniel Dubois and Filip Hrgovic next.
Dubois and Hrgovic will compete on the undercard of Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol on June 1st in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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The IBF heavyweight could be on the line for Dubois-Hrgovic if the belt is stripped from the winner of the May 18th undisputed championship fight between champions Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.
It’s still too early to know if the IBF belt will be available. The International Boxing Federation will need to decide after the Fury vs. Usyk match goes down.
“He will fight the winner of Daniel Dubois and [Filip] Hrgovic in Wembley,” Chisora said to the iFL TV YouTube channel.
It’s not a surprise that Hrgovic is under consideration for Joshua’s next fight, as promoter Eddie Hearn has repeatedly mentioned him as a possible opponent for AJ’s next clash.
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What’s new is that Joshua could possibly face the dangerous puncher Dubois (20-2, 19 KOs) if he emerges victorious against Hrgovic, which adds a new wrinkle. With Joshua’s weak chin and Dubois’ youth and power, we could see AJ brought to earth again.
That would obviously ruin Hearn and the Saudi’s plans for a mega-British clash between Joshua and Fury, a fight that Eddie has been salivating about since he inked AJ in 2013 shortly after his Olympic gold medal victory. This writer can only imagine the sour look on Hearn’s gob when Joshua is beaten again. That’ll be fun to see.
Boxing fans would rather see Joshua fight the 6’5″ Dubois than Hrgovic, who isn’t as popular and has a habit of landing punches to the back of his opponent’s heads during competition. Dubois is younger and is a better puncher than Hrgovic.
He would be Joshua’s ideal adversary, considering we could see Dubois spoil the party and wreck Hearn and the Saudis’ vision of a Fury-Joshua fight once and for all.
