British Heavyweight Champion Fabio Wardley has made his prediction for Anthony Joshua–Daniel Dubois next month.
Both fighters bounced back well from losses to Oleksandr Usyk and the Ukrainian vacating the IBF belt meant that Dubois was immediately elevated from interim to full champion earlier this year.
His first defence is ‘AJ’, who has the chance of becoming a three-time heavyweight champion. Very few people, if any, are predicting the all-British banger goes the distance – there are 45 knockouts between the two and each has been stopped in the past.
Speaking to Seconds Out, Wardley – who sparred Joshua ahead of his 2020 fight with Kubrat Pulev and Dubois back in 2017 when he was still on the domestic scene – backed the more experienced man by knockout.
“I think AJ wins and I think AJ will stop him. When? Who knows, but I think he’s big, he’s strong – not to say Daniel isn’t at all – but I just think AJ’s slightly sharper, been in the game a little bit longer, bit more used to the big stage.
Again, not to take away anything from Daniel, he’s had some massive fights himself, but just that level of comfort being sat in that kind of moment, I think AJ will rise to that.”
Joshua will step through the ropes at Wembley Stadium on September 21 a favourite to snatch the belt from Dubois after only months of holding it, but the 26-year-old’s team believe this fight comes at the right time for him as his mentality strengthens and his opponent nears the end of his career. -secondsout
