Dillian Whyte sees Saturday’s bout between Anthony Joshua and IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois as a “50-50 fight” for his headliner at London’s Wembley Stadium.
(Credit: Mark Robinson / Matchroom Boxing)
Former interim WBC champion Whyte disagrees with people who have Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) as the favorite because there is a good chance he will lose to Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs) as much as for him to win. .
Whyte gives Joshua, 34, the advantage through the fourth round, but if he hasn’t scored a knockout since then, it goes in Dubois’ direction. I feel like Joshua doesn’t handle pressure well in the second half of his fights, and that’s what Dubois will do.
The 96,000 fans expected to be present at Wembley Stadium will largely support Joshua, but this may not be important. Whyte says that Dubois follows instructions well, and that he takes them to do if he is told to do something in his corner.
The crowd can’t dissuade Dubois from doing the mission, which Whyte feels makes him dangerous. Dubois doesn’t play around when things get tough. He will continue to follow the mission until its conclusion. His ability to follow orders gives him a soldier quality.
“People say he’s the underdog, but I don’t think he’s an underdog. I think it’s an equal fight,” said Dillian Whyte to talkSport Boxing about the Anthony Joshua vs. Daniel Dubois fight on Saturday. “It’s one of those fights where it’s a 50-50 fight.”
The oddsmakers go by what Joshua has done in recent fights, believing that he will be able to do the same thing to Dubois. However, the last four opponents of Joshua have been the opposite of the type of road to rebuild his destroyed confidence.
“Dangerous for Dubois in the beginning, but if he goes three or four rounds, I think he becomes very dangerous for AJ, like we saw in the Andy Ruiz fight. He let him down and then exploded .AJ doesn’t deal well with pressure late in fights,” Whyte said.
Joshua will be dangerous early, but so will Dubois. If Joshua can’t connect with one of his big right hands to score a knockout, as we saw against Francis Ngannous, things could get worse for him once the contest enters the second half.
“When you go out in front of 95,000 people and 60,000, 70,000 are rooting for AJ (it can be intimidating). AJ was built for this stage and this magnitude. He’s been involved in big fights and big crowds. Daniel hasn’t. So the advantage he’s leaning towards AJ a little bit,” Whyte said.
In Dubois’ recent fights against Filip Hrgovic, Jarrell Miller, and Oleksandr Usyk, the crowd cheering for those fighters motivated Daniel, which drove him to fight harder. He feeds off the energy of the fans, and he doesn’t care when they cheer for his opponents. It works in his favor, and this is another bad thing for Joshua.
“One thing that Daniel does well is that I notice when you say to him, ‘Let’s do this. This is what happens. So he can be very dangerous,” Whyte said of Dubois.
