Analyst Teddy Atlas says IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois must be extra defensively aware in his protection in opposition to Anthony Joshua subsequent month, or he’ll get knocked out early of their conflict on September twenty first at Wembley Stadium in London.
Atlas admits that he was impressed with how Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs) willed himself to victory final June in opposition to Filip Hrgovic in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Dubois, 26, walked by many heavy pictures from Hrgovic within the early rounds to put on him down and cease him within the eighth.
Atlas doesn’t suppose Dubois can do the identical factor in opposition to the 34-year-old Joshua. If he does, that will be admirable as a result of Joshua has lots of energy, however he’s outdated, chinny, and has poor stamina.
Hrgovic’s pictures early on within the combat in opposition to Dubois would have knocked Joshua out many instances over as a result of he’s not constructed to take punishment and by no means has.
The Want for Defensive Changes
“Towards Usyk, he broke down mentally, after which he got here again in opposition to [Jarrell] Miller and [Filip] Hrgovic, he redeemed himself,” mentioned Teddy Atlas to the Stomping Floor about Daniel Dubois. “He turned a professional. He wants to enhance on his protection.
“He willed himself to knockout Hrgovic. He walked by these punches. He redeemed himself as a person,” Atlas continued about Dubois. “That combat was about dwelling with himself in opposition to Hrgovic and in opposition to Miller. He walked by these punches after which broke him down, instilling his physicality in him. He took every kind of punishment.”
It wasn’t simply Dubois who took punishment. From the primary spherical, Hrgovic was hit with huge pictures from Dubois, which appeared to sap the vitality out of him like a battery. The youthful fighter, Dubois, had a greater engine and chin than the older man, 32-year-old Hrgovic.
“It was like raindrops hitting a windshield. It didn’t matter,” mentioned Hrgovic concerning the pictures that Dubois was getting hit with by Hrgovic. “They have been splashing off. I used to be very impressed. I used to be impressed together with his people who they acquired him to that place, however he can not do the identical factor in opposition to Joshua. Joshua punches too precisely and too laborious with the suitable hand.”
The Unchangeable Preventing Type
Dubois could have to have the ability to stroll by Joshua’s punches as a result of Joshua won’t be able to alter his preventing type by subsequent month. He’s at all times fought the identical approach, and he can’t change into a defensive artist in a single coaching camp.
If Dubois wins this combat, he might want to do what he did in opposition to Jarrell Miller and Hrgovic to put on Joshua down. Which means taking pictures. Atlas might not prefer it, however that’s the way in which it’s. If he have been Dubois’s coach and had him preventing cautiously, he’d most likely lose as a result of he’s tousled his sport together with his meddling.
You don’t change a fighter that has at all times fought the identical approach forward of the largest combat of their profession. I suppose that’s why Atlas isn’t a coach anymore. For those who mess up you’re fighters by making an attempt to alter their DNA, they lose after which dump you.
“Joshua is in an excellent place now mentally, and, in fact, technically with Ben Davison,” mentioned Atlas. “If he [Dubois] goes to count on the identical punishment and stroll by it within the first few rounds, it ain’t occurring. So, except they’ve coupled what they’ve finished on the psychological facet the place they’ve improved tremendously.
“Except they’ve improved on the technical facet and finished one thing to enhance to keep away from these punches, particularly early on, I’m not even going to say it may be a protracted evening. It may very well be a brief evening in that case.
“It’s as much as them [Team Dubois] to acknowledge that. I believe they do they usually’ve finished one thing as a result of it’s not like that they had lots of time to do it, nevertheless it needed to be finished, and we’ll discover out if it was finished,” mentioned Atlas.
