Can Anthony Joshua become a three-time world champion on Saturday?
Daniel Dubois is ready to make his first defence of his IBF world heavyweight title on Saturday, September 21, as he takes on challenger Anthony Joshua in an all-British battle staged at Wembley.
It’s been a rocky road for the former two-time world champion over the last few years, losing his belts to the unheralded Andy Ruiz Jr in a disastrous U.S., debut in 2019, before winning them back in the rematch six months later within the same year. Only to then have them swiped from his grasp yet again with back-to-back losses to Oleksandr Usyk.
Joshua’s career looked all but over, he had now lost the heavyweight belts twice and failed to regain them on his second time of asking.
He never looked like he would win them back against Usyk either; the Joshua in the ring for both those fights looked tentative, wary and scared, although he was able to make the rematch in 2022 far more competitive than their first fight in 2021, which was a one-sided masterclass from the Ukrainian.
His first-ever loss coming to Ruiz Jr a couple of years prior seemed to change something within the Watford warrior, maybe he no longer trusted his chin or his ability, or he was just experiencing feelings and doubts that he had never experienced before.
Whatever the answer, the fallen fighter stood in the ring after his second loss to Usyk, defeated, confused and deflated, and was a far cry from the young hungry athlete who had dismantled Wladimir Klitschko and Joseph Parker, who walked through a storm from Dillian Whyte to stop him in seven, placing his name at the very top of the world.
In an emotional outburst, he snatched the microphone from the victor, ruining his big moment in the spotlight, then threw all of the titles he had just lost out of the ring. He struggled to understand how he could be beaten after he spent so much time regrouping, working on his character and mental strength.
After his third defeat and the damaging effect it clearly had on him, it was clear for many to see that Joshua’s career was over.
A second chance under Ben Davison
But AJ has since emerged from the wilderness to now be sat up high as the No.1 IBF mandatory contender to the world title.
He looks refreshed, reinvented, happy and confident, yet glimpses of the old-school AJ with his explosive power still shine through. Gone is the timid boxer we were presented with following his surprising defeat to Ruiz Jr five years ago. A new Joshua has stepped out from the shadows.
Could it be thanks to new coach Ben Davison? Still just 32, he’s the man who made his name seemingly pulling fighters back from the brink, and appears to have done it once again.
He started with Tyson Fury; taking an overweight, extremely troubled man, struggling with addiction and mental health problems, transforming him back into ‘The Gypsy King’ once more, perhaps an even better version than what left the ring back in 2015, when he dominated Klitschko in his own backyard in Dusseldorf to dethrone the 10-year-long reigning champion.
Now, once again, he seems to have breathed life back into the career of another heavyweight, giving Joshua new legs to stand on, and one more chance to claim heavyweight gold.
“I thought it was a good link-up, you know. I said years ago that he probably should have done that because Ben lives right around the corner from him. And he’s a fun guy to be around, he’s a good trainer,” Fury said on the linkup with his ex-cornerman.
AJ has been training under Davison for just short of a year now, choosing the fellow Brit over Texan Derrick James for his Otto Wallin fight last December.
The move was originally claimed to be simply due to location and convenience, with Joshua having to travel to the States for his camps with James, however, this likely isn’t the full story.
A man wanting to get his career back on track, choosing the trainer who made his name winning losing battles seems more than just coincidence, and his choice has paid off.
Since teaming up with Davison, the Watford fighter has put together a duo of fantastic victories having gelled instantly and seamlessly.
They kicked off their relationship with a win over Otto Wallin last December. AJ demolished the Swedish southpaw in five bruising rounds, looking a far cry from the fighter we had seen take back-to-back defeats at the hands of his Ukrainian kryptonite.
AJ boxed aggressively against the 33-year-old, stalking his man and picking his shots carefully, breaking down the man who gave Fury such issues in their bloodied 2019 fight, which saw Fury requiring 47 stitches to repair a cut caused by a punch in the early rounds.
It took just five rounds for Joshua to claim victory, with a battered and bruised Wallin choosing not to rise from his stool for the sixth stanza.
There had been a a couple of tune-up fights prior to the Wallin demolition, but this was the first time in a long time that the once-champion looked ready to compete back at the top echelons.
A few months later, the scripts repeated themselves yet again. Joshua found himself making light work of an opponent that the then-WBC champion Tyson Fury had also struggled against.
This time it took only two rounds for him to find a stoppage, knocking fearsome MMA fighter Francis Ngannou down three times, with Ngannou finding himself knocked out cold after a thunderous right hand landed on his chin to end the fight conclusively.
It was a performance to formally announce that he was back to his old self, fearlessly knocking out his opponents with that big right hand he had become famed and feared for.
Under Derrick James, AJ appeared to show off some new boxing skills, where he jabbed and fought at range, appearing to be a thinking fighter, solving puzzles in his head as took the back foot, waiting patiently for openings. But that resulted in having to go the full 12-rounds and winning on points in a fight which no one really enjoyed greatly.
It’s hard to deny the impact Davison has had on Britain’s ‘star boy’. He seems to have played to Joshua’s strengths, encouraging the pocket shots, instilling the confidence to go forwards and look for the finishing blow.
AJ is too big, too slow and too heavy to bob and weave, out-boxing his opponents will never work, now he knows that, and British boxing is all the better for it.