When Dubois fell "ill", i gave him the benefit of the doubt. But i think its pretty clear his team pushed him not to fight Parker for fear of jeopardizing the Usyk fight. Beating 3 big strong but relatively slow (except Joshua) heavies who were ALL ORTHODOX fighters is no preparation for fighting Usyk. If you want to fight an orthodox guy, why not fight a Huni who can at least move and box? And why not fight a southpaw to prepare? Instead team Dubois went in with this insane idea that he "won" the first fight when he lost every round. Even if it was a legit blow (it wasn't), it won't land in 2 different fights. Fury also did something similar. In order to prepare for the greatest southpaw in heavyweight history, a man known for his speed and footwork, he chose to fight Derek Chisora and Francis Nnganou. You know, because of the southpaw brilliance of Chisora and the lightning speed of Nnganou. Time to move on. Usyk is a bonafide ATG. It should be either Parker or Kabayel or retirement. Please no Chisora or AJ 3.
Eddie Hearn is ducking Parker, Chisora, Kabayel the entire HW divsion for his dead bodybuilder former golden goose
I mean, of course he did. It came out somewhere that he always has anxiety issues before a fight. That, a minor earache, fear of being caught on Brazillian hot sauce, and a big contract to cash-out in front of him, and he had a clear choice.
Dubois had a tickle in his throat and used it to skip the Parker fight. With how much he was apparently getting paid for Dubois I can't blame him. I still reckon Parker would have beaten Dubois on that night, not as easily as Usyk did of course. But Parker worked in camp to take Dubois' jab away and come in under his guard like Usyk did in the early rounds and I'm sure he would have come away with the win.
I thought so aswell they'd seen Parker had bulked up and looked dangerous and didn't fancy taking a risk which would've spoiled the big pay day vs Usyk. In reality no one expected Dubois to beat Usyk again it was just a big money fight for Dubois.
True that, its so easy to agree to fight Parker when Dubois is feeling super confident of the Joshua win. But after a few months, Parker is looking good and the Usyk fight for more money and glory is in the offing, it paints a different picture.
To be fair Dubois made the right decision. Instead of fighting Parker for a few million and possibly losing he fought Usyk for over $50 million, so despite getting knocked out he could retire tomorrow if he wanted to.
It really messed things up. too. If Parker could have walked into a fight with Usyk as a two-time titlist, it would have been a HUGE fight to real fans. Unfortunately poor Joe doesn't sell to British casuals, I guess. Well, I hope he gets his chance.
Yes he did. It was all about the money. Other than that, if they fight 100 more times - Usyk will get them all.
I think more Hrgovic took Dubois lightly. I'm not a Parker guy I'll take the excuse but I get why you feel that way. But damm this makes Joshua took bad. Fury and Joshua scammed us for years. We have no idea about anything at HW.