According to a news article from The Mirror, Daniel Dubois will face Trevor Bryan on August 29th. The story says the heavyweight fight, that will see both Dubois and Bryan defend their version of the WBA heavyweight title (there are, as fans know, too many versions to be able to keep track of), will take place on the under-card of the Jake Paul-Tyron Woodley fight. Also set to fight on the card is Tommy Fury, brother of Tyson Fury, who will face TBA in his US debut.
It is the Dubois-Bryan fight, however, that is the most interesting and possibly most important (the fact that a You-Tuber can headline when established pros feature on the under-card is another story). For as much of a joke as it is that Bryan (WBA “regular” champ) and Dubois (WBA “interim” champ) are calling themselves any sort of a “world” champion, the match-up is an intriguing one. If we can forget the silliness of the belts attached and just concentrate on the fight, it’s a pretty solid one.
How good is Bryan? How good is Dubois? Dubois has had just one fight back since being badly beaten by Joe Joyce (Dubois being heavily criticised for the manner of his loss), while the unbeaten Bryan’s biggest win came over a faded, overweight Bermane Stiverne. So who wins if these two do collide on the Paul-Woodley card later this month?
31 year old Bryan of Albany, New York, has fought so infrequently (just two fights since December of 2017), against such limited opposition (his best wins coming over Stiverne and B.J Flores, a cruiserweight), that it’s almost impossible to know how good he is. It’s possible Bryan, 21-0(15) is the dark horse of the heavyweight division.
Dubois of London is still only 23 and he proved basically nothing in blasting out Bogdan Dinu in his first fight back after losing to Joyce; nothing other than his confidence is back. Now 16-1(15), Dubois has faced better opposition than Bryan (wins over Kevin Johnson, Nathan Gorman, the Joyce fight, from which “Dynamite” may have learned a lot), and he is the bigger puncher. But who has the better chin, the bigger heart?
Dubois-Bryan is no bad fight. Just don’t call it a world heavyweight title fight.
