Trainer Andy Lee says his fighter Joseph Parker will be ready to face Daniel Dubois next in February if he doesn’t rematch Anthony Joshua, who still hasn’t decided whether to take the fight.
If the Dubois vs. Parker fight happens, it’s expected to be staged on February 22nd in the massive Riyadh Season event that promoter Eddie Hearn has talked about being a massive one.
Many fans believe that Parker will have too much for Dubois and will send him down to his third career defeat. However, other fans see the 27-year-old Dubois as too powerful for Parker, who has 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 would be making his second defense of his IBF heavyweight title. He recently knocked out Joshua in five rounds on September 21st at Wembley Stadium in London.
The 32-year-old former WBO heavyweight champion Parker (35-3, 23 KOs) has 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 by Parker, who has changed his style to become a defensive fighter, but he got the job done.
In the case of Zhang, Parker barely beat him after being dropped twice in a fight that he appeared to lose six rounds on March 8th in Riyadh. Parker should have lost with the two 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 won’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 shot last year in August.
However, the referee ruled it a low blow. The replay showed it was on the beltline, which meant that Dubois should have been given a fifth-round knockout. Instead, he was later stopped in the ninth round.
Parker is ready. https://t.co/Syjz4xRdHV
— Andy Lee (@AndyLeeBoxing) October 29, 2024
