‘The Daddy’ is again in town, and again calling for a MASSIVE fight – this is a new Daniel Dubois everybody.
While the exciting British heavyweight has always been explosive inside the ropes, in the past he was a quiet man outside the ring. Not any more.
In the build-up to his terrific stoppage win over Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller in December, Dubois provided an absolute beauty during a pre-fight press conference, telling the American giant: “Hey ‘Big Baby’, every baby has a Daddy and I’m gonna beat you like I’m your Daddy”.
Dubois made good on that promise on that massive ‘Day of Reckoning’ card in Riyadh, blasting Miller en route to a stoppage late in the 10th and final round. It was the American’s first professional defeat.
Now Dubois (20-2 with 19 KOs) now has another big man with an unbeaten record firmly in his sights – the mandatory contender for the IBF heavyweight title, Croatian Filip Hrgovic.
Hrgovic (17-0 with 14 wins inside distance) wanted to step in to face champion Oleksandr Usyk for that title on February 17 after Tyson Fury was forced to pull out of their unification showdown with that ‘freak cut’. Instead ‘El Animal’ is now likely to feature on the undercard of the Anthony Joshua vs Francis Ngannou blockbuster on March 8.
Dubois calls out Hrgovic
Saudi Arabia General Entertainment Authority Chairman Turki Alalshikh revealed that there are six possible opponents for Hrgovic – with Dubois one of them. The others are European champion Agit Kabayel, Cuban slickster Frank Sanchez, Top Rank prodigy Jared Anderson, the aforementioned Miller and Martin Bakole.
Dubois clearly would love to be the man standing across from Hrgovic in a few short weeks, as he revealed in a social media clip on Tuesday.
‘Dynamite’ said: “Hrgovic, I’m The Daddy. I heard you’ve been calling out everybody else’s name. I can’t hear mine. Are you ready? Cos I’m ready”.
A win over Hrgovic would put Dubois very much back in the world title picture following his failed challenge for the WBO title last August. He was stopped by Usyk in Poland after having the champion on the deck earlier in the fight. That body shot was ruled a low blow rather than a knockdown though and the Ukrainian genius was given time to recover.
The only other defeat suffered by the explosive Dubois was a knockout at the hands of Joe Joyce in a huge domestic dust-up in 2020 when he took a knee after suffering a horrific eye injury.
