Boxing analyst Tony Bellew predicts a quick victory for Anthony Joshua against Daniel Dubois when the two fight on September 21.
It is too early for Joshua to face Dubois next because his promoter, Eddie Hearn, says the IBF title must be there before he fights.
Bellew says the defending IBF heavyweight champion is too strong to take the powerful right shots from Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) without collapsing quickly.
Joshua’s latest Knockout power
“If he fights AJ next, it’s going to be quick and brutal,” said Tony Bellew on iFL TV, predicting that Anthony Joshua will score a quick knockout against IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois in September.
“Based on the fact that, let’s put two and two together here. He landed 56 clean right hands in the first four rounds,” Bellew said of Dubois in his fight with Filip Hrgovic on June 1 in Riyadh.
It seems that Bellew’s high opinion of the 35-year-old Joshua’s ability to knock out soon is based on his 0-1 second round knockout of Francis Ngannou starting last March in Riyadh.
Joshua hasn’t knocked out anyone so quickly since early in his career when he KO’d Charles Martin in 2016 and Gary Cornish in 2015.
Those two fighters were average guys who were nowhere near Dubois’ level, and Joshua was much smaller than him now. AJ is older than Adrien Broner. Let that sink in for a second.
Bellew Admits Dubois’ Toughness
“You’re going to break up with one or two AJs, and you know what happens? Then go to sleep,” said Bellew. “I’m not taking anything away from him. Amazing strength and courage against Filip Hrgovic, but it’s one thing for Filip Hrgovic to beat you and another thing for a smashing machine like Anthony Joshua to beat you,” said Bellew.
Joshua is not young, and Hearn is nervous after losing two fights in a row to Oleksandr Usyk. After the second loss to Usyk, Hearn began playing against younger opponents, which he did in his last four tights in a row.
“I don’t want to take anything away from Daniel Dubois in any way, shape or form because he has done wonders. He proved me wrong. I thought Filip Hrgovic would get fed up with him, hit him and block him. He allowed Filip Hrgovic to punch himself out,” said Bellew.
If Bellew had watched Hrgovic’s fights with Dempsey McKean and Zhilei Zhang, he would have seen that he is not a fighter.
He would have understood that there was a good chance that Hrgovic would stumble on Dubois once he started taking shots, because he lost to Zhang and was hurt by McKean.
“He did the rope that Muhammad Ali did [against George Foreman on October 30, 1974], but he took all the punches. He [Dubois] someone hit him many times [Hrgovic] he got tired, and that’s what he did. Amazing resilience, Daniel Dubois. I tip my hat to you; you did well,” said Belle.
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