Daniel Dubois is being credited by some as the best heavyweight on the planet following his destructive two-round beatdown of Fabio Wardley, and Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has assessed whether Tyson Fury would be able to get the better of ‘Triple D’.
Five months on from their Fight of the Year candidate, Dubois and Wardley ran it back at the weekend and whilst the outcome was the same – a Dubois victory via technical knockout – the circumstances were much different.
This time, Dubois made easy work of the Ipswich fan-favourite as he caught Wardley clean in the opening seconds of the contest and never allowed him to recover, with Ben Davison throwing in the towel in the second round to bring the clash to a close.
Speaking with iFL TV, Hearn was quizzed on how Fury would fare against Dubois and he admitted that he has seen major mental improvements from the reigning WBO heavyweight champion.
“When you fight Dubois, the fight can change very quickly. He is incredibly dangerous, but once you get to him and you start breaking him down, physically and mentally, the fight can spin very quickly, but I think that he is getting better at that with maturity and confidence.
“I think that he was very frail, emotionally and mentally, but I think that he is maturing and I don’t think that exists as much anymore.
“When I say that he quit in those fights [against Joe Joyce and Oleksandr Usyk], it’s more that it was just too much for him. It was not like he was getting hurt, he was just having to deal with a situation changing, but I think that he is overcoming that and maturing as a person.”
Although, Hearn seemed to infer that he believes ‘The Gypsy King’ could overcome Dubois, if he adopted the aggressive ‘Kronk’ style of approach that saw him twice trump Deontay Wilder.
“Look what Usyk did to him, Dubois came out for the first minute and set on him, backed him up with that ramrod jab and Usyk just went, ‘Do you know what? I ain’t having this, I will take the fight to him’.
“He took the fight to him and battered him. Dubois is a monster compared to Usyk, in size, and Usyk backed him up and beat the granny out of him, that is the reality.
You have to do that and you have to be able to do that, you have to be good enough and tough enough to withstand the pressure and if you do that, you can beat him.
“But, he is very heavy-handed, he is a big lump and right now, he is full of confidence, which makes him very dangerous.”
Fury will take on Anthony Joshua on Friday December 11 in Cardiff, whilst Dubois is expected to return to action with a second defence of the WBO marble in February.
