Eddie Hearn revealed that Anthony Joshua has a rematch clause to force a second fight against IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois after being knocked out in the fifth round by him on Saturday night in London.
Hearn didn’t say whether Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) will activate the rematch clause immediately or later. Joshua will need to consider this decision carefully because he did not look good tonight, getting knocked down repeatedly in the short five-round fight.
Joshua’s Trainer Wanted Fight Stopped
AJ’s trainer, Ben Davison, jumped in the ring after he was being counted out in round five. That move showed that Davison felt that Joshua had taken enough punishment from Dubois, and he didn’t want the fight to continue.
The 27-year-old Dubois had youth on his side tonight, beating the living daylights out of the 34-year-old Joshua, who was nothing like the fighter he’d been during his prime.
Age appeared to have caught up to Joshua tonight, with him looking slow and his punch resistance gone.
“Are you not entertained? I’m a gladiator, I’m a warrior to the bitter end and I’m just ready to go. This is my time, this is my redemption story, and I’m not going to stop until I reach my full potential,” said Daniel Dubous after the fight.
Joshua seemingly never recovered from a first-round knockdown he suffered tonight. In the final seconds of the first round, Dubois connected with a short right hand that he wasn’t expecting, and the punch looked like it may have concussed the former champ. After that round, Joshua was on skates in rounds two, three, four, and five.
“Eddie, I asked AJ about the rebuild, and he seemed pretty confident that he would be back,” said commentator Ade Oladipo at Matchroom Boxing, talking to promoter Eddie Hearn about whether Anthony Joshua would come back. “You’ve always been a part of that rebuild. You know how difficult it is. We are going to see AJ back in the ring, aren’t we?”
“Yeah, I’m sure he’ll exercise that rematch clause. I think that’s a given, but he’ll need a rest,” said Hearn about Joshua using the rematch clause to fight Dubois again. “It’s a dangerous fight. This guy is growing in confidence all the time, but he’ll believe he can hurt Dubois. He’ll believe he can beat him, but full credit to Daniel Dubois. He deserves all the credit. It was a great performance from Daniel.”
Dubois put Joshua down with a blistering punch in the third round, and it’s unclear how AJ survived because he was not in good shape after getting to his feet. Joshua knocked down in the fourth and then once again in round five.
There was a brief hope for Joshua in the fifth when he landed a scorching right that shook Dubois to his boots, causing his legs to instantly turn to jelly. Dubois retreated to the ropes in what looked like a land stand for him. Joshua charged forward, throwing bombs.
Dubois threw a nice right hand that missed, but it was thrown with a lot of power. Joshua should have noted that Dubois was still alive and played it safe, but he didn’t.
Instead, AJ threw a hard right hand that Dubous countered with a short punch that connected like a ton of bricks on his chin, putting him down. The fight was then stopped at 0:59 of round five.
I wouldn’t recommend Joshua ever face Dubois again because he’s not equipped to beat this kind of fighter at his age. Maybe if Joshua were still in his mid-20s, he’d have a shot at beating him as long as he didn’t get hit, but not the soon-to-be 35-year-old Joshua that we saw tonight.
Joshua has lost too much from his game to have a chance of beating Dubois in a rematch. It would be better for Joshua to take His Excellency Turki Alalshikh up on his offer to fight Tyson Fury in his next fight. Turki said that he didn’t care if both fighters were beaten. He still wants that fight next.