Don King won the purse bid for the rights to stage the WBA regular heavyweight title showdown between Trevor Bryan and Daniel Dubois.
‘The Don’ outbid Frank Warren and Queensberry Promotions for the rights to the showdown, and remember the ‘regular’ heavyweight title is not the one all fighters covet. That is the ‘super’ title – currently held by Oleksandr Usyk.
King bid is more than $3million
King, now 90 years of age. bid $3.116million to win the race while Warren offered $2.503million. Now the next steps are to confirm a date and a venue.
According to the WBA, King has given June 18 as the date for the fight – with possible venues including London, South Florida and New York. He now has 20 days from March 21 to provide contracts signed by both parties.
Warren meanwhile had proposed to hold the fight in Derby, England on May 21 as the first option, Midlands, England on June 11 as the next alternative and another for June 18 in London.
Dubois moving on up
For Dubois (17-1), the bout offers a chance to keep his name in the mix at the top end of the heavyweight division. He has looked impressive in two wins since that devastating first pro defeat at the hands of Joe Joyce in November 2020. The 24-year-old Londoner crushed both Bogdan Dinu and Joe Cusumano in 2021.
The 22-0 Bryan meanwhile was seen most recently in outpointing Jonathan Guidry in Ohio in late January. His record though is distinctly underwhelming, with the highlight arguably a stoppage of Bermane Stiverne in early 2021 to win that WBA regular heavyweight title.
Basically this on the face of things is Dubois potentially moving closer to an actual world title shot, and it’s a fight he should win. We’d expect him to start favourite and that trademark punching power should be too much for Bryan.
