Saturday night’s IBF heavyweight title fight between defending champ Daniel Dubois and challenger, former WBO heavyweight champ Joseph Parker, is a big deal as it is, yet the winner will almost certainly face unified heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk next. And that will be really big, as in all four belts on the line big. Usyk has already said he will fight Saturday’s winner, while we all know Dubois has been calling for a rematch with Usyk ever since he was, in his (and his promoter’s) opinion, “cheated” out of a legit body shot KO back in August of 2023.
As to who he expects to face later on this year – Dubois or Parker – Usyk told Sky Sports that his team are almost split down the middle over who gets the win in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “My team has made a prediction. 52 percent is for Dubois, 48 percent is Joseph Parker,” Usyk said.
Plenty of fans, along with a whole bunch of experts, are also somewhat torn over who wins this fight. 27 year old Dubois, 22-2(21) is a huge puncher and he is on a real roll, having won his last three, with him of course coming off that crushing KO win over Anthony Joshua. But 33 year old Parker, 35-3(23) has the edge in experience and he too is on a real roll, with him coming off big wins over Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang.
Usyk says he has “no problem” facing either man, and in truth Usyk would likely be installed as a pretty big favourite over either Dubois or Parker. We’ll soon see who it will be who holds the IBF belt when waking up on February 23rd.
Pick: I see Dubois getting Parker out of there some time in the second half of the fight. Who do YOU like in this fight, and how? Could the Dubois-Parker fight actually surprise us and go the full 12 rounds?
