Anthony Joshua looked nervous during his face-to-face interview with IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois on DAZN to promote their September 21st fight.
Flanked by promoters Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn, Joshua started across the table and attempted to intimidate Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs) with a prolonged stare while saying he was ready to fight.
Dubois’s Calm Defiance
It was an obvious attempt by the former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua to show that he was the alpha male and to exert his dominance on Dubois, which put him in a one-down position before they even fought.
Joshua’s aggressive posturing fell flat as Dubois calmly looked him in the eyes and told him, “Let’s go. If you want to go now, let’s go.” This challenge of Joshua’s authority by the young 26-year-old Dubois wasn’t what he expected from him.
Rather than submitting to AJ’s intimidation tactics, Dubois invited the aging lion to start throwing punches there. Interestingly, instead of Joshua showing courage, Joshua revealed weakness, saying that he would hit him with a chair across the face.
In other words, Joshua lacked the confidence to fight Dubois with his fists and would need weapons for protection. It was a sign of frustration and cowardice on Joshua’s part, as he threatened him with a chair, showing his insecurity and mental weakness.
Dubois stood his ground, exerting his psychological advantage against the older fighter, who had recently been matched against four weaker opponents to keep his career alive.
Dubois: The Psychological Victor
During the exchange, Dubois was the clear psychological winner. He had shown that Joshua’s attempts at intimidating him into cowering and submissive behavior weren’t going to work. Dubois was not afraid to fight him with his bare hands and was ready to beat the older lion right there on the spot.
The takeaway from this interaction was that Joshua’s need for intimidation to gain an advantage is a sign that his self-confidence has deteriorated since being dethroned by Oleksandr Usyk, to whom he has lost twice. Dubois’s calm demeanor shows that he’s ready to defeat Joshua on September 21st and send him into the Tyson Fury fight on a sour note.
