Daniel Dubois will have a second chance at greatness as he challenges Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight crown on July 19th.
July 19th will be 2025’s biggest night of boxing as Daniel Dubois will seek to avenge his second career defeat with a win over pound-for-pound king Oleksandr Usyk.
Dubois is coming off a string of wins over Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic, and Anthony Joshua. Usyk, meanwhile, is coming off back-to-back wins over ‘The Gypsy King’ Tyson Fury.
Whilst Dubois looks to put his second defeat right, his first, against Joe Joyce, will seemingly never be rectified.
Daniel Dubois demolished Joe Joyce’s replacement before brutal injury in British title fight
In February 2020, Dubois vs Joyce was announced to take place in the O2 Arena in April.
In March, the COVID-19 pandemic meant the fight was pushed back to July of the same year, though as time went on, that date looked unlikely too.
The fight was rescheduled again for the 25th of October as a result of the ongoing pandemic, and both men had an interim fight whilst their domestic dust-up was orchestrated.
Dubois was set to face Olympian Erik Pfeifer, but instead faced 18-1 Ricardo Snijders when Pfeifer withdrew.
‘Dynamite’ Dubois lived up to his namesake as he blitzed Snijders in two rounds, dropping him three times in the first and ending his career for good.
The Joyce fight did eventually happen in November, though Dubois likely wished it hadn’t, as, whilst up on the scorecards, Joyce inflicted a devastating injury on Dubois, fracturing his eye socket and forcing him to take a knee and allow himself to be counted out.
Dubois faced much criticism for the Joyce loss, and was labelled a quitter for years.
Joe Joyce’s career has gone significantly downhill not long after the Dubois win
Shortly after his big win over Dubois, Joyce, who lost to Usyk in the amateurs, faced Joseph Parker in 2022, and stopped the Kiwi heavyweight in the 11th round to win the WBO interim heavyweight world title.
The win marked Joyce’s biggest, and put him in line for the full title next. That was until Joyce took a voluntary defense against Zhilei ‘Big Bang’ Zhang, a decision that would come back to haunt him.
Joyce was stopped by Zhang after failing to evade his shots, with a doctor ending the fight as a result of Joyce suffering a swollen eye.
In a bid to put his sole career defeat right, Joyce rematched Zhang, but was brutally knocked out in the third round.
He had a comeback fight against Kash Ali, who bit one of his opponents, before suffering back-to-back losses at the hands of Derek Chisora and Filip Hrgovic.