Daniel Dubois laid down the gauntlet to his fellow heavyweight world champions as he dispatched of Fabio Wardley in a dominant two-round beatdown on Saturday night.
Now, after talk of a unification rematch with Filip Hrgovic, Carl Froch has offered his thoughts.
Dubois needed only 17 seconds to remind Wardley of his punch power – five months on from their initial encounter in Manchester – catching the Ipswich fan-favourite clean on the chin and leaving him dazed as referee Steve Gray began his count.
From that point onwards, Wardley was offered no opportunity to recover. Instead, Dubois threw a barrage of shots without relent, refusing to take a backwards step until the towel came in during the second round to bring the onslaught to an end.
Having witnessed that statement showing, Carl Froch told his YouTube channel, Froch on Fighting, that ‘Triple D’ is ‘on the crest of a wave’ at present.
“He [Dubois] is flying now, he is on the crest of a wave. He had the rematch, sold out the O2 [Arena] and everybody is talking about him. It was a big fight, we thought it was going to be a great fight but it just turned out that it wasn’t. That is all credit to Daniel Dubois for that performance.”
Following the action, Dubois found himself immediately moving on to what comes next, as IBF heavyweight ruler Filip Hrgovic entered the ring and demanded a rematch, over two years after Dubois’ eighth-round technical-knockout triumph over the Croatian.
Continuing, Froch admitted that a second showdown between the two heavyweight world champions is one that he is ‘really looking forward to’ and that Hrgovic will give Dubois ‘all he wants‘ in the ring.
“Hrgovic is also flying, he got into the ring; big, strong, good looking bloke and he looked smart, didn’t he? He had that Croatian flag on his nice, smart leather jacket, he looked well and he speaks okay, as well. There is a bit of a language barrier but he is a likeable character, he is a sellable character and he means business.
“That win against Moses Itauma was pretty special and he has also been in with Daniel Dubois in the past, them two have got history. He was all over Daniel Dubois early, he was leathering him, putting shots together, catching Dubois all over the place.
“I was watching that fight thinking, ‘How is Dubois soaking this up?’, because Hrgovic can bang!”
“Hrgovic will give Daniel Dubois all that he wants in a rematch, that is another one that I would potentially be really looking forward to.”
Whilst fans seem keen on a second meeting between Dubois and Hrgovic, the latter looks set to make the first defence of his title on home soil in Croatia, with Frank Sanchez waiting in the wings for his shot at the heavyweight throne.
