Anthony Joshua has another huge night coming up in September.
For many years, Joshua was the poster boy of British boxing. His extreme success in the ring was a boost for everyone in the sport as people flooded to see him sell out the likes of Wembley and the Principality in Cardiff.
He rose to become a unified world champion in quick fashion without too much trouble, but then suffered an upset loss to Andy Ruiz Jr. He convincingly won the rematch but would go on to suffer two losses back to back against Oleksandr Usyk.
Though many people wrote him off, he has now put together a string of four increasingly impressive wins and is one victory away from becoming a three time world champion. He will take the honour should he beat fellow Brit and current IBF belt holder Daniel Dubois, who was elevated to champion after beating Fillip Hrgovic once undisputed champion Usyk vacated the belt.
Whilst he will enter the ring a favourite, Hall of Famer Barry McGuigan writes in The Mirror that a loss could do significant damage to Joshua’s stock.
“It depends to a degree on the nature of the loss but it is certainly hard to see where Joshua goes should he register a fourth career reverse.”
He added that Dubois could also do with avoiding another defeat.
“Dubois has fewer miles on the clock, but with two heavy defeats to Joe Joyce and to Usyk, he can’t afford another shellacking at the hands of Joshua and hope to get a world title crack.”
He then made a case for both men.
“Joshua is the more complete fighter. He can box and bang. But he is vulnerable, as he showed against Andy Ruiz; badly hurt, dropped and would have been knocked out had the ref not stepped in.
“Dubois has definitely improved. We can attest to that because much of his development happened markedly with us. He was behind to Filip Hrgovic this month but found a way. He is a still a little one dimensional. Explosive, but moves slowly.”
It will be an entertaining fight between two big punchers but one that Ricky Hatton sees going the way of the former unified champion.
