27 year old Daniel Dubois vs 27 yo Anthony Joshua?

He fought guys who were not at his level.

 

27 year old AJ would make the same mistakes that would cost him being chinned. Bad style matchup all the way. I would say the defensively responsible version of AJ from Usyk II might have had a chance to beat him.

 

Hard to know. It didn't happen and what could have happened is just speculation.

 

Typically Joshua, an elite fighter who never learns from his mistakes, Dubois crushes any version of Joshua...

 

His adjustments in rematches with Ruiz and Usyk say otherwise.

 

Dubois was 19 or 20 when he had Joshua out on his feet in sparring. This is a major reason why Joshua was spooked when they finally got in the ring, despite AJ’s four win streak and dominant prior two performances which had most saying he was as good or better than ever.

Dubois knew he could seriously hurt or KO Joshua with one punch and got on him from the opening bell. Joshua felt the jab and sh*t his pants. By contrast, Joshua hasn’t jumped on anyone from round 1 since Whyte back in 2015. It was round 5 before he put it on 41 Wlad. Against Whyte and Wlad he got hurt or dropped one round later.

It wasn’t Joshua’s tenacity that got him the win against Wlad; he was there for the taking from rounds 6-10. It was Wlad’s unwillingness or inability to unleash a barrage of shots and get rid of Joshua. Even the limited Ruiz was willing and able to do this, dropping Joshua twice in 3, taking two rounds off, piling up damage in 6 and stopping him in 7. Dubois was even more aggressive and turned the screw until he put Joshua out cold in 5.

Dubois was the first prime puncher Joshua fought in his career and almost matched Joshua for size. Wlad was 41, Povetkin was 39, 6’1, 222 lbs. Whyte didn’t have Dubois’ power, natural size or athleticism.

Joshua clearly doesn’t back himself at this stage hence he ducked his chance for revenge, a title shot, a big payday etc.

Dubois’ win over SHW Hrgovic may well be as good or better H2H than Joshua’s over 41 Wlad.

I’d have to favour Dubios.

 

27 year old AJ was a different beast to now. Yes he has more experience now, but he has more ghosts and is older, will naturally be less motivated to decapitate someone etc.

 

The amount of speculation, theorizing, and revising people make in Joshua's defense is something I've never seen in the sport.

An extremely dedicated fanbase.