Commentator Steve Bunce believes Anthony Joshua will not have as much confidence in his ability to beat Daniel Dubois in a rematch as he did after his loss to Andy Ruiz Jr. in June 2019.

(Source: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)

Joshua (28-4, 23 KOs) is now five years older at 34, while Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) is significantly younger at 27. He is a much stronger boxer than Andy Ruiz and is not going to party and easily make 280+ pounds.

It is unknown whether Joshua will decide to fight Dubois again because it is risky and he can make more money by fighting Tyson Fury. If his promoter, Eddie Hearn, comes up with a good excuse to tell the public why AJ will not fight Dubois again, they will believe him.

Joshua and Hearn thought it was a lot easier to trigger the rematch clause and fight Ruiz Jr. again because he had put on weight. He was never a gigantic talent. He was just a fringe prospect that Joshua used as a replacement opponent when Jarrell Miller tested positive for drugs in 2019.

“He’s a little older and probably wondering how much longer he has left. He was so convinced after [Andy] “I believed Ruiz would win the rematch,” Steve Bunce said iFL TV on whether Anthony Joshua will want a rematch with Daniel Dubois, as he did after losing to Andy Ruiz Jr. in June 2019.

If Joshua is worried about how fans will perceive him by avoiding the rematch, he will overcome his fear and fight Dubois again. But Hearn or someone on his team could talk him out of fighting Dubois.

“I’m not sure he would have the same confidence. He had complete faith that if he got Ruiz again, he would beat him. It was complete faith. He’s not stupid. I don’t think he had complete faith that he would beat Dubois in a rematch. He can say it, but he feels it,” Bunce said.

Joshua won’t have the confidence to beat Dubois like he did Ruiz, but that’s obvious. In the Ruiz fight, Joshua wasn’t getting beat up in the first round and was fighting well until he was knocked down in the third round on June 1, 2019.

“He should have been stopped a few rounds earlier. He seemed to be thinking too much,” Diallian Whyte told iFL TV about Joshua thinking too much and not letting go of his hands. “Sometimes AJ can be too much of a thinker. AJ was thinking instead of waving his hands. Dubois was waving his hands. Dubois was intelligent. Credit to him, his dad and Don Charles.

AJ’s trainer, Ben Davison, didn’t want to pull him out of the Dubois fight and risk angering him. We’ve seen Joshua change trainers a few times, and it would have been too risky for Ben to pull him out of the Dubois fight in the second or third round to save him.

For coaches who are confident they won’t be fired for pulling their fighters when they’re losing, this won’t be a problem; given how often Joshua has changed coaches, Ben would have put himself at risk of being fired had he given up in the first two or three rounds last Saturday.

“Joshua has made a lot of money and done great things. He can come back and still fight good fights. He has made a lot of money and got a lot of fame. Maybe the spark is not there,” Whyte said.

Dubois hurt Joshua not because of the wealth AJ has acquired in recent years. Joshua was hurt because he couldn’t handle Dubois’ power or any fighter who punched demanding. Joshua’s chin has been vulnerable since his 2017 fight with Wladimir Klitschko, and he’s been stunned many times since then.

Fighters who hurt Joshua:

-Daniel Dubois
– Carlos the Greedy
-Alexander Povetkin
–Andy Ruiz Jr.
– Oleksandr Usyk
– Kubrat Pulev
– Wladimir Klitschko
-Dillian Whyte

“It’s not an simple fight for Tyson Fury,” Whyte said, reacting to reports that Fury wants to beat Oleksandr Usyk on December 21 and then beat Dubois to become undisputed champion. “Fury has to be careful because Dubois has the power of Ngannou. Dubois can box a lot better than Ngannou. So he has to be careful.

“Fury can tie Dubois up to stop him from fighting because Dubois let AJ tie him up so easily. It was crazy,” Whyte said.

Dubois would still be a problem for Fury, as he can’t stay up and lean into the win like he did against Deontay Wilder. Fury’s chin isn’t as good as it once was, and Dubois will land harder punches than those that hurt him against Oleksandr Usyk.

Dubois’ body shots will cause Fury problems as he tends to lean into the ropes to avoid headshots, and his body is always exposed when he does this.

Fred Garvin’s favorite division still holds up in 2024.

learned that Pedro Taduran is ready to make the first defense of his second IBF strawweight reign. Taduran will defend his title against China’s DianXing Zhu on November 23rd on Jeju Island, South Korea.

The fight will be a mandatory title defense as Zhu is the top-ranked IBF title contender.

Taduran (17-4-1, 13 KOs) regained his title with a ninth-round knockout of undefeated Ginjiro Shigeoka (11-1, 9 KOs). Their July 28 fight in Otsu, Japan, took place at a time when Shigeoka was the number one strawweight in the world according to The Ring. Taduran was on the road to the biggest win of his credible career.

The 27-year-old Filipino left-hander will once again be competing on the road, although this time on neutral ground.

Zhu (14-1, 12 KOs) has won nine straight fights since August 2020, when he lost to fellow countryman Fangyong Zhang (15-6-1, 4 KOs). All but one of his current wins has come by knockout. The only one that landed on the scorecards was Zhu’s previous trip to South Korea, a 10-round decision over Richard Garde (10-2, 9 KOs) on Jan. 13 in Incheon.

Taduran previously held the IBF title from September 2019 to February 2021. He won the belt in a fourth-round stoppage of Samuel Salva in September 2019. After that fight, he defended the title only once before suffering two consecutive losses to Rene Marc Cuarto.

Taduran has three wins, including a 12-round decision over Filipino Jake Amparo. The win on December 28 came in an elimination bout, making Taduran the mandatory. From there, he went about his business, knocking out Shigeoka.

The fight marks another mighty 105-pound bout on the verge of a long-awaited return. It received a five-star review from Garvin, the lead box office analyst, who is a fan of any fighter who weighs less than his booze stash.

“If loving a strawweight was a drink, I wouldn’t even want to be sober,” Garvin noted.

Taduran is currently ranked No. 3 by The Ring in the strawweight division, though he will soon swap places with fellow countryman Melvin Jerusalem (23-3, 12 KOs). Zhu is not yet ranked by The Ring, though he is considered a contender for the No. 10 spot when this goes to press.

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In a recent match that drew a record crowd of 96,000 at Wembley Arena in Wembley, UK, on ​​Saturday, former heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medalist “AJ” Joshua (28-4) was defeated by interim IBF champion Daniel “Dynamite” Dubois (22-2) via 5th round knockout.

At the pre-fight press conference, Joshua stood up and challenged Dubois, causing a stir. Dubois remained adamant as the press conference was interrupted. Joshua did not know that a few days later, due to his arrogance, he would be knocked out by Dubois.

In heavyweight boxing, in September 1985, heavyweight champion Larry “The Easton Assassin” Holmes had a record of 48-0 and came within a whisker of tying Rocky Marciano’s record (49-0) by defeating airy heavyweight champion Michael “Jinx” Spinks (27-0) in 15 rounds.

It was the surprise of 1985 according to Ring magazine. Later, the arrogant Holmes said: “Marciano couldn’t wear my jockstrap!” Nothing about Spinks, who beat him!

In March 1971, former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali (31-0) returned from a three-year layoff due to the Modern York boxing commission having his license revoked. After having it returned to him after two victories, he signed a contract to regain his title and face another Olympic gold medalist who then held the heavyweight title, “Smokin’ Joe Frazier” (26-0), at Madison Square Garden in Modern York City.

Entering the fifteenth and final round, Ali was trailing 8-6, 9-6, and 11-4, needing a knockout. It was Frazier who floored Ali in the first minute of the round, although Frazier had swelling around both eyes that were nearly closed by the end, according to the post-fight commentator, who said, “Frazier’s sitting on his stool looking diseased,” when he was announced the winner. He was later taken to the hospital. Ali, suffering his first defeat, had a swollen jaw but was not taken to the hospital.

The arrogance of Joshua, Holmes and Ali led to their defeat.