Anthony Joshua v Daniel Dubois: Profile, Stats, Free Bets & Betting Offers

It is fair to say that it’s been an interesting couple of years for Anthony Joshua. The moment that he lost to Andy Ruiz Jr., the respect for AJ in the heavyweight world all but disappeared. Yes, he got his title back by defeating him a few months later, but two losses in succession to Oleksandr Usyk meant that his stock had well and truly fallen.

He defeated both Jermaine Franklin and Robert Helenius in quick success, with the plan being for him to take on Deontay Wilder after that. Instead, he fought Otto Wallin in Saudi Arabia in the December of 2023, earning the money from the sports-washing regime as he tried to restore his reputation.  That was followed by another Saudi money fight against former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, that AJ won with a second round knockout in March 2024.

The desire of many is still to see Joshua go up against a genuine heavyweight talent to see if he can make any claim to still being a top fighter, but when the bout against Wilder fell apart it was always going to be a struggle for him to find someone to take on that would be worthy of the name. Before AJ can jump back in the ring with Fury or even Usyk he needs a proper fight and thankfully this time he has one against IBF interim heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois.  Dubois got the title when Usyk vacated it and it may offer AJ a chance to get a belt back and begin the climb back to being a potential world champion again.

For AJ, the chance to restore his reputation is crucial, given the fact that someone will be wanting to face the winner of the fight once Usyk and the Gypsy King have had their rematch.  The fight being in London (Wembley Stadium) should prove an advantage for AJ who has had mixed results in recent fights abroad – it is also, of course, better for the fans.

The exceptional punch power of AJ means he has managed 25 knockouts in 28 wins, with now three defeats.  Although the losses were big ones, stripping him the IBF, WBA, WBO and IBO titles, AJ now has his sights set on getting the IBF belt back and then potentially trying to become the undisputed world champion.

AJ vs Dubois Fight Details

Anthony Joshua was gearing up to face Deontay Wilder next on his road to recovery, but when the Bronze Bomber lost to Joseph Parker on the same night that AJ defeated Otto Wallin, the decision was taken to pivot to a different direction. That direction was to fight Francis Ngannou, and the former UFC champ was easily dispatched with a second round KO by AJ in March 2024.

There is no question that many in the boxing world will want Joshua and Tyson Fury to get into the ring together before they’re both too old for the fight to mean much of anything, but if that’s going to happen then AJ will need to ensure that his reputation is all but restored.

In some senses, this fight is a bit of a last chance for Joshua to still be seen as a top level boxer. On the one hand, he is all but expected to defeat his compatriot, so if he does then the entire world will issue a collective shrug of the shoulders over the matter – but he will get an IBF heavyweight belt out of it and that makes him more attractive opposition.

If he loses, however, then his reputation may be in tatters and it will be all but impossible for him to get a shot at re-gaining his all his titles, irrespective of who it is that wins between Usyk and the Gypsy King. The reality is that a fight between AJ and Fury would be worth huge sums of money, so the entire boxing world will be wary of putting that at any risk of not happening. It is a risky fight for AJ to take on Dubois, but it could position him well for the future. He has given himself every chance by fighting in London instead of abroad this time, though.

What Are They Fighting For?

When it comes to what is on the line, the simple answer is that nothing is as far as Anthony Joshua is concerned. Not in terms of titles anyway. Daniel Dubois, on the other hand, currently holds the IBF heavyweight title which Anthony Joshua has held twice before, and will no doubt be keen to reclaim.

Perhaps more than that though, the two fighters have their careers on the line.

Joshua won his last fight against Francis Ngannou, but to be honest, if he hadn’t we would all be asking serious questions about his retirement. His reputation was hardly improved with that win, so this is his chance to show the world he still has what it takes to compete at the top level.

Dubois isn’t at the most elite level yet, but he’s not too far off either, so a win for AJ will be a statement that he is not past his best and still a worthy opponent for the likes of Usyk and Fury. It is likely that the winner of this bout will go on to face one of these men next, after their bout at the end of December. Whoever wins that will hold the WBA, WBC and WBO heavyweight titles, while the winner of the Joshua/Dubois fight will hold the IBF heavyweight title.

Thus, if the winner of one fight faces the winner of the other, there will be a new undisputed heavyweight champion of the world come sometime in 2025.

This is what they are really fighting for.

Unlike Joshua, who has a lot to lose, Dubois has a lot to gain. Sure, if he loses the bout he loses his belt, but he is only 28 and has plenty of time to go again. He needs fights of this standard to improve his game, he needs to be tested, and if he fights well he can expect more big headline fights.

If he wins, he will in all likelihood become the new face of British boxing and get a chance to become the undisputed heavyweight champion. Even if he beats Joshua then falls to Usyk or Fury next year, his stock will be a hell of a lot higher than it is now.

So Dubois is fighting to build his reputation, and Joshua is fighting to save his.

What The Experts Think

It’s safe to say Anthony Joshua has more experience at this level than Dubois, and as the more experienced and accomplished fighter most people are backing him for the win. That said, due to this being his last real shot at maintaining his status as a top level boxer, Joshua is perhaps psychologically at a disadvantage, and the younger Dubois could exploit that.

Fellow boxer, Matty Harris, has got his predictions in, stating that Joshua will knock Dubois out inside of 8 rounds. Although he’s not expecting it to be an easy fight:

“Dubois isn’t gonna walk him down the way he walked Hrgovic down. I know Hrgovic can punch, but his shots, a lot of them were fast and he looked off balance. Dubois will be a little bit more measured because he knows he can’t get hit that clean off of Joshua, but if he’s more measured that kind of plays into Joshua’s hands. I’m gonna just call it and say I think Joshua knocks him out. I don’t think Dubois has got a good enough defence, he’s pretty straightforward.”

Harris has been in the ring with both fighters so he is well placed to form an opinion.

Other fighters think Dubois has more of a chance though, one of which being Carl Frampton. The Northern Irishman has commented that there is more jeopardy for Anthony Joshua, given his age and where his career is at this point:

“There’s definitely more pressure on AJ going into this fight and I think that’s a nice position for Daniel Dubois to be in.”

We know Dubois can handle pressure, and we have seen AJ struggle with it at points in the past. Plus, there is much talk of the winner of this fight going on to do battle with either Usyk or Fury next, and the prospect of potentially going back up against Usyk after losing to him twice on the bounce might not be all that appealing.

Anthony Joshua has even spoken about Dubois himself, commenting on the Hrgovic fight that, “When Dubois refused to give up, Hrgovic didn’t have any other answers”, so he knows the strength of his opponent’s mentality.

The bookies all have Anthony Joshua down as the favourite with odds odds around 1/4 to win, while Dubois is averaging odds of around 3/1, but it wouldn’t be the first time that bookmakers made the wrong call on one of AJ’s fights. Remember Andy Ruiz?

Whoever wins, no one is expecting it to go the distance. Both men have careers littered with knock outs, both have incredible power in their punches, and both men will be vulnerable if the other really connects.

Shane McGuigan, Dubois former trainer, pointed out that Joshua has a weakness: “He drops his right hand when he throws a jab. So when he throws a jab he separates it [from the right hand] to get it to really travel. And when he gets brave, he drops his right hand.”

But he also notes Dubois must be careful: “Joshua doesn’t punch through the target with his jab but he really lets the right hand go and that is such a devastating shot, Daniel can’t get hit with it.”

What’s Next For AJ

Understanding the world of heavyweight boxing nowadays is like trying to understand the inner thoughts of your pet dog: most of the time it seems to be making sensible decisions and then every now and then it licks its own private parts for an unhealthily long amount of time.

The decision to avoid the big fights and instead take on fighters who nobody takes very seriously is the boxing equivalent of licking its own private parts. Joshua’s reputation took one hell of a beating when he lost to Andy Ruiz Jr., given that most people thought he’d absolutely destroy the journeyman but failed to do so. Even though he took back his belts 6 months later, the damage was done, and his two defeats to Usyk further cemented his reputation as ‘not quite good enough’.

He has recovered from all of that somewhat, successfully seeing off Franklin Jr, Helenius, Wallin and Ngannou, but given the standard of some of his recent opponents there is still plenty of doubt surrounding his future. In other words, he really does need to beat Dubois.

With all of that in mind, you can assume that what will come next for AJ, should he defeat Dubois, is a fight against the winner of the bout between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk. The problem is, the complicated world of heavyweight boxing is such that there are all sorts of mandatory challengers for each of the belts currently in Usyk’s possession and they should get priority.

If Joshua loses, it is difficult to see any way back for him as a serious contender for the heavyweight crown. There are many younger boxers making their way through the ranks who will be given much more credence than the one-time heavyweight champion of the world.

Daniel Dubois Profile

Born on the 6th of September 1997, in Greenwich, London, Dubois is a 27 year old orthodox fighter who was Anthony Joshua’s sparring partner for a while, so the pair know each other well. He currently holds the IBF Heavyweight title and has previously held the WBA Heavyweight title (regular version).

Dubois has been boxing since he was nine years old, when his father took him to a boxing gym to keep him out of trouble. He went on to box for England and was asked to join the GB Olympics team for the 2020 games, but decided to turn pro instead, signing with Frank Warren.

His first professional fight was over inside of 35 seconds, and it set the tone for things to come. His old school bruiser style and powerful left jab combined to put countless opponents on the floor, as he racked up 15 wins in his first 15 fights.

His first loss came to Joe Joyce in November, 2020. During the fight Dubois suffered an orbital bone fracture to his left eye socket which is a serious injury, but he came back relatively quickly, fighting again about 7 months later.

Some people unfairly questioned his heart after this due to the quality of his next few opponents, but even if we put the eye socket fracture to one side, Dubois finds himself in an odd position.

He is one of the few fighters in their 20s to be challenging for championships at the top level, but many would say he is not quite ready for it. On the other hand, he has walked through the Area, English, British and Commonwealth levels with ease, and struggles to find fighters good enough to test him outside of the big leagues.

No one could question his heart when he went up against Oleksandr Usyk though. This would be Dubois 2nd loss of his career, but he gave the Ukrainian a run for his money, even knocking him down with a body shot early in the bout. This was ruled below the belt, although it was a controversial decision, and the fight could have gone the other way if the decision had been different.

That was a year ago, and his two fights since against Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic saw him back to his best. Anthony Joshua is a different calibre of opponent though, and the bookies see this as another step too far and too soon for Dubois. He has to take these big fights if he wants to test himself though, and he might even surprise us.

Daniel Dubois Stats and Facts:

• Full Name: Daniel Dubois
• Nickname: Dynamite DDD
• Nationality: British
• Date of Birth: 6th September 1997
• Stance: Orthodox
• Weight: Heavyweight
• Height: 6 foot 5 inches
• Reach: 78 inches
• Professional Boxing Record To Date: 22 fights,21 wins (20 by KO),  2 losses

Anthony Joshua Profile

Born in the UK on the fifteenth of October 1989 but raised in Nigeria until he was twelve, Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua has become one of the best-known boxers in the world. Perhaps what is most remarkable about his rise is that he only started boxing at the age of eighteen when Ben Lleyemi, his cousin and a professional boxer in his own right, suggested that he take it up. Sufficed to say that his success since then has proven his cousin’s suggestion to have been a worthwhile one.

A natural athlete from an early age, he showed promise in both sprinting and football but chose not to pursue a career in either of them. Joshua’s mother, Yeta, was Nigerian and his father, Robert, was English but of Nigerian and Irish descent. Having travelled to his ancestral home at an early age, Joshua returned to Watford when his parents divorced in 2001. He was midway through Year Seven of school at the time, but he didn’t allow the disruption to affect his life to any real extent. Here’s a look at his story.

Amateur Career

Despite only starting boxing relatively late in his youth, Anthony Joshua was a quick learner at the sport thanks to the coaching he received at Finchley Amateur Boxing Club in the Barnet area of North London. He won his first tournament two years after joining when he picked up the Haringey Box Cup, retaining it the following year. Unsurprisingly, those trophies gave him a taste for winning and in 2010 he fought what was just his eighteenth bout but saw him victorious in the senior Amateur Boxing Association Championship.

On the back of that, the then twenty-one-year-old was offered his first professional contract, which was worth £50,000. It was an easy decision for him, though, later saying, “Turning down that £50,000 was easy. I didn’t take up the sport for money, I want to win medals”. Winning medals was something that he was learning how to do, defending his ABA Championship title in 2011. Whilst he was known domestically at that stage, it wasn’t until 2011 that Joshua began to earn respect in an international sense. Having travelled to Azerbaijan to take part in the World Amateur Boxing Championships in Baku, he beat the World and Olympic champion, Italian Robert Cammarelle.

Olympic Boxing

The domestic success that Anthony Joshua enjoyed in 2010 saw him invited to join the GB Boxing team and he soon defeated Amin Isa to become the British amateur champion at the GB Amateur Boxing Championships. After defeating Cammerelle in Baku, Joshua also beat Erik Pfeifer on his way to the final and in the process secured a place in the 2012 Olympic Games, which were due to be held in London. At the same time, he was also named by the Boxing Writers Club of Great Britain as the Amateur Boxer if the Year. Despite that and the silver medal won at the WAB Championships in Azerbaijan, Joshua was still a novice when it came to international boxing when the 2012 Olympics got underway.

Perhaps one of the most controversial moments of Anthony Joshua’s career to date occurred in the last sixteen bout during the Olympics when he went up against Erislandy Savón, the Cuban boxer who was ranked number four in the world by the AIBA at the time. The home boxer was awarded a 17:16 win by the judges after three hard-fought rounds, with many believing that Savón should’ve won but that the home crowd had swayed the decision. Regardless, it set up a quarter-final bout with Zhang Zhilei, who had won the silver medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, with Joshua dropping him in the second round. He took on the Kazakhstani boxer Ivan Dychko in the semi-final, winning 13:11.

The final saw him come up against a former foe in the shape of Roberto Cammarelle. At the time, Cammarelle was the reigning Olympic Champion and had twice been World Champion, so it was little surprise when he raced into the lead thanks to scores of 6:5 and 13:10. Joshua had a decent third round, however, and in the end the judges called it 18:18 in a decision that critics once again felt was a bit of a ‘home decision’. His gold medal at the 2012 Olympics earned Joshua an MBE in the 2013 New Year Honours.

Professional Heavyweight Boxer

Joshua turned professional in July of 2013 when he signed with Matchroom Boxing. He fought nineteen times in the following three years and remained undefeated during that time. He defeated Charles Martin in 2016 to lift the Heavyweight belt, retaining it when he beat Dominic Breazeale in the same year. In December 2016 he fought Eric Molina and retained the title once more.

Perhaps the biggest fight of Joshua’s career to-date came in April of 2017 when the former Olympic gold medalist went up against Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley Stadium. At the weigh-in, the Ukrainian came in at 240 and a quarter pounds, whilst Joshua was 250 pounds. In the fight, both men gave everything in front of ninety thousand people and the Englishman won by technical knockout in the eleventh round. Even without the knockout, Joshua was ahead with two of the judges.

As a professional, Anthony Joshua has fought twenty-seven times to date and has won twenty-two of them by knockout, two by decision and of course three losses.  The first when he temporarily lost his belts to Andy Ruiz in June 2019, before claiming them back with a display of traditional boxing in Saudi Arabia in December of the same year.  Then again when Usyk beat him on home soil in 2021 and in the rematch in Saudi Arabia in 2022.

Since fighting Klitschko he has taken on Carlos Takam, Joseph Parker, Alexander Povetkin and Andy Ruiz, though the big fight that he wants is against Tyson Fury, who he called out after his win in Wembley back in 2017.

Despite the prospect of a Fury v AJ fight being the biggest talk in boxing for the past few years it seemed like it would never happen.  Partly because Tyson keeps saying he is retired but mainly because if he fought anyone people expected it would be Usyk in a unification fight.

The fact Fury decided to call AJ out in September 2022 instead was a big upset but one massively welcomed by the world of boxing and especially the British public.  It is a lifeline that AJ probably didn’t think he was going to get and the last chance to make sure his legacy remains in tact.  I think on balance AJ might take losing his belts if he can claim to be better than Fury.

The fight still hasn’t come to fruition and in the meantime AJ dispatched Jermaine Franklin by Unanimous Decision at the O2 in London in February 2023. Then 6 months later in August 2023 he beat Finn Robert Helenius (a late substitute for Dillian Whyte who failed a drugs test) in a seventh round KO also at the O2.  Obviously AJ was expected to win both of those fights but it is notable that his knockout of Helenius was his first since beating Kubrat Pulev in December 2020.

Next up for AJ was a fight against Otto Wallin in December 2023, yet again in Saudi Arabia of course.  It was part of a double card that also included Wilder against Parker and the idea was that AJ and Wilder would both win and this would set up a big fight between them in March.  Problem is AJ won by TKP but Wilder lost and that left an open slot and AJ searching for an opponent.

The Saudi’s won’t be without their boxing, it is a key part of their sportswashing program, and so a fight was set up against former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou for the March date.  Ngannou had fought Fury in a non-belt 10 round fight the previous year in what was obviously just a money fight but Ngannou did well, knocked Fury down once and only just lost on points.  Despite AJ saying the Fury v Ngannou fight was a “gimmick fight” it appears his mind was quickly changed either by the fact Ngannou was better than people thought or because it represents a big pay day, or a mixture of the two.

The Ngannou fight was hardly at the levels of what AJ has done before but the way he dispatched Francis with a second round knockout certainly made a statement. He may have no titles right now but whatever way you look at it the future of AJ and the heavyweight titles is still exciting and filled with potential drama. His time as heavyweight champion now seems to be behind him but never say never.

Anthony Joshua Stats and Facts

• Full Name: Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua
• Nickname: AJ
• Nationality: British
• Date of Birth: 15th October 1989
• Stance: Orthodox
• Weight: Heavyweight
• Height: 6 foot 6 inches
• Reach: 82 inches
• Professional Record To Date: 31 fights, 28 wins, 3 loses, 0 draws, 25 knock-outs
• Titles: Former IBF, WBA, WBO, IBO champion