Analyst Teddy Atlas says IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois needs to be more defensively conscious in his defense against Anthony Joshua next month, or he will get knocked out early in their clash on September 21st at Wembley Stadium in London.
Atlas admits that he was impressed with how Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs) willed himself to victory last June against Filip Hrgovic in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Dubois, 26, walked through many heavy shots from Hrgovic in the early rounds to wear him down and stop him in the eighth.
Atlas doesn’t think Dubois can do the same thing against the 34-year-old Joshua. If he does, that would be admirable because Joshua has a lot of power, but he’s old, chinny, and has poor stamina.
Hrgovic’s shots early on in the fight against Dubois would have knocked Joshua out many times over because he’s not built to take punishment and never has.
The Need for Defensive Adjustments
“Against Usyk, he broke down mentally, and then he came back against [Jarrell] Miller and [Filip] Hrgovic, he redeemed himself,” said Teddy Atlas to the Stomping Ground about Daniel Dubois. “He became a pro. He needs to improve on his defense.
“He willed himself to knockout Hrgovic. He walked through those punches. He redeemed himself as a man,” Atlas continued about Dubois. “That fight was about living with himself against Hrgovic and against Miller. He walked through those punches and then broke him down, instilling his physicality in him. He took all kinds of punishment.”
It wasn’t just Dubois who took punishment. From the first round, Hrgovic was hit with massive shots from Dubois, which seemed to sap the energy out of him like a battery. The younger fighter, Dubois, had a better engine and chin than the older guy, 32-year-old Hrgovic.
“It was like raindrops hitting a windshield. It didn’t matter,” said Hrgovic about the shots that Dubois was getting hit with by Hrgovic. “They were splashing off. I was very impressed. I was impressed with his people that they got him to that place, but he cannot do the same thing against Joshua. Joshua punches too accurately and too hard with the right hand.”
The Unchangeable Fighting Style
Dubois will have to be able to walk through Joshua’s punches because Joshua will not be able to change his fighting style by next month. He’s always fought the same way, and he can’t become a defensive artist in one training camp.
If Dubois wins this fight, he will need to do what he did against Jarrell Miller and Hrgovic to wear Joshua down. That means taking shots. Atlas may not like it, but that’s the way it is. If he were Dubois’s trainer and had him fighting cautiously, he’d probably lose because he’s messed up his game with his meddling.
You don’t change a fighter that has always fought the same way ahead of the biggest fight of their career. I guess that’s why Atlas isn’t a trainer anymore. If you mess up you’re fighters by trying to change their DNA, they lose and then dump you.
“Joshua is in a good place now mentally, and, of course, technically with Ben Davison,” said Atlas. “If he [Dubois] is going to expect the same punishment and walk through it in the first few rounds, it ain’t happening. So, unless they’ve coupled what they’ve done on the mental side where they’ve improved tremendously.
“Unless they’ve improved on the technical side and done something to improve to avoid those punches, especially early on, I’m not even going to say it can be a long night. It could be a short night in that case.
“It’s up to them [Team Dubois] to recognize that. I think they do and they’ve done something because it’s not like they had a lot of time to do it, but it had to be done, and we’ll find out if it was done,” said Atlas.
