Trainer Andy Lee says his fighter Joseph Parker will be ready to face Daniel Dubois in February if he doesn’t drop Anthony Joshua, who is still undecided about taking the fight.
If the Dubois vs. Parker fight happens, it is scheduled to take place on February 22nd at the massive Riyadh Season event that promoter Eddie Hearn has said will be massive.
Many fans believe Parker will be too much for Dubois and send him to his third career loss. However, other fans see the 27-year-old Dubois as too powerful for Parker, who has been shown to have a chin problem. That’s why he reinvented his fighting style to become a pure boxer with the help of Andy Lee.
Dubois will make his second defense of his IBF heavyweight title. He recently knocked out Joshua in five rounds on September 21 at Wembley Stadium in London.
32-year-old former WBO heavyweight champion Parker (35-3, 23 KOs) earned his shot at a world title by defeating Zhilei Zhang and Deontay Wilder in back-to-back fights. They weren’t particularly entertaining performances from Parker, who changed his style to become a defensive fighter, but he got the job done.
In Zhang’s case, Parker barely beat him after being dropped twice in a fight he appeared to lose in six rounds on March 8 in Riyadh. Parker should have lost with both knockdowns, but the judges surprisingly gave him a 12-round majority decision. It wasn’t the ideal way for Parker to get a title shot, but he didn’t turn it down.
Dubois has looked outstanding in his last three fights, knocking out Joshua, Filip Hrgovic and Jarrell Miller. Before that, he gave heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk a scare, dropping him in the fifth round with a body blow last year in August.
However, the referee ruled it a low blow. The replay showed it was on the belt, which meant Dubois should have been given a fifth-round knockout. Instead, he was later signed in the ninth round.
– Andy Lee (@AndyLeeBoxing) October 29, 2024
