Dorian Darch fought both Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois – and was knocked out both times. and was knocked out both times. Here shares dthe Welshman his assessment on the World Cup duel on Saturday in London.
The showdown between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois will take place tomorrow (September 21) at Wembley Stadium. A South Londoner (Dubois) will fight a North Londoner (Joshua) for the IBF heavyweight crown. The Greenwich-born Dubois (21-2-0, 20 knockouts) will defend his world championship belt for the first time against Joshua (28-3-0, 25 knockouts), who hails from Watford. Previously, “Dynamite” had been upgraded from interim to full champion without a fight after Oleksandr Usyk relinquished his IBF belt.
Both fighters focus on the knockout rate – Dubois has a whopping 95 percent, Joshua 89 percent! The fans are wondering: which of the two will go down (first) at Wembley Stadium? Dorian Darch had his say on the knockout power of the two rivals. The civil engineer from Tredegar (Wales), who has since retired from professional boxing, was in the ring with both “AJ” and Dubois during his career (12-12-1) …
Five giants against Joshua
Darch, from Aberdare, fought Joshua in his tenth fight in Cardiff in February 2014. The six-round fight lasted just two rounds as AJ scored his fourth knockout in as many fights. “I made it to the second round, then a heavy left hook hit me – and just killed me. My legs were gone, my hands fell to the floor. Luckily the referee intervened before AJ had a chance to hit me again.”
Darch, managed by former British featherweight champion Steve “Sammy” Sims, was paid 5,000 pounds for the fight and was a successful fighter at the time with seven wins and two losses. Joshua, a gold medalist at the 2012 Olympics, had knocked out all three of his previous opponents and was heavier in his clash with Darch than he had ever been in any of his professional fights.
Dubois technically better
When the Welshman fought the current IBF World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Dubois in December 2017, he was already established in his new role as an “away fighter”. “Dynamite”, then 20 years young, had five wins (5 knockouts) to his name and was already the “Southern Area” and “WBC World Youth” champion at the time.
Looking back, Darch says of the two rivals: “In my opinion, Dubois is not as big or doesn’t punch as hard as Joshua, but he was a technically better boxer. Dubois hit hard, but I don’t think he had any punching power.” The 40-year-old remembers: “AJ has more power with one punch, shoots the lights out with one hit. Dubois did knock me down three times”, but none of his punches really knocked him out.
“AJ wins by knockout”
In Darch’s eyes, Dubois has developed enormously since his knockout defeat to Joyce at the end of 2020, but “I still don’t think you can develop that power as a boxer. Okay, you never know, maybe he’s gotten stronger. But at the time I fought both of them, AJ was punching a lot harder.”
And so the man from Aberdare predicts the world championship fight on Saturday evening in London: “Well, AJ by knockout. I don’t think it will go to points.” Despite his development, Dubois simply got caught out far too often in his last fight against Filip Hrgovic (T.K.O. 8th round) – something like that would go very wrong against AJ. “There will be an early to mid-round knockout from Joshua, I think.”
Text: Frank Schwantes / PM SportsBoom.com