You can play the nitpick game with literally any boxer though. Sanchez had one leg, Makhmudov turned out to be European level, Zhang was 41, Bakole had a 24 hr layover, Wilder was shot, Huni was piecing Wardley up for 10 rounds, Parker had the wrong game plan, etc. etc. etc.
It's not nitpicking when those are pretty damn obvious to anyone with half a brain that saw those fights.
Dubois knocked him out in sparring. Dubois absolutely destroyed him to the point where joshua himself ducked the rematch and people still think he'd beat Dubois. This is crazy talk Joshua is overrated as hell
The point is that your focus shapes your reality, ie. you can always cherry-pick moments from a fight to build a narrative that discredits one fighter. Fact is, he had one of, if not the best runs in the HW division leading up to the second Usyk fight.
David Price knocked him out in sparring. Supposedly Joey Dawejko did as well. Dubois beat him after Joshua had spent almost a decade at the elite level with countless world championship fights. Lets come back to this post when Dubois is 34-35 years and compare where the two stack up career wise. I can say very confidently that Joshuas career will still be much better and that Dubois will have fallen off very badly himself.
It's just business. Dubois has a fan base and can contribute to filling a stadium with the right dance partner.
Yeah, but Dubois was beating AJ to the jab from the get-go, snapping his head back like an inflatable tube man. It was one of the worst, prolonged, beatdowns I've seen. Even though Dubois lost his last fight vs Usyk, I think he deserves this title shot. He's an exciting fighter to watch who wants to swang and bang. This is a 50/50 fight.
Wardley is entitled to a voluntary defence, Dubois is ranked highly by WBO and sells ticets as well as being fun to watch. So I'm okay with this. And will certainly be tuning in.
Hrgovic is more deserving: coming off of wins against Joyce and Adeleye, and only lost to Dubois illegitimately from an insane amount of headbutts in a fight he was otherwise winning. Also it's only boxing politics nonsense that Kabayel isn't on the WBO's top 10 given he's most deserving of a title shot. Tbh you could make a case that anyone who isn't inactive and coming off of a loss is more deserving than Dubois. Give Ajagba a shot. Or the Torrez-Sanchez winner.
Really? Dubois clearly is and should be ranked above all 3, as he actually has fought and beaten top 10 contenders(and of course Usyk). The only reason to say that Usyk does not deserve a fight at Wardley is because he just fought Usyk. This means that you'd have to argue that Wardley is a legitimate champion on par with Usyk.
I like Hrgovic, but beating a post-Zhang Joyce and Adeleye by UD doesn't equal a title shot. But I do think that Hrgovic deserves a rematch vs Dubois due to the disgusting headbutts.