Daniel Dubois and Joe Joyce have agreed to terms for April 18

Daniel Dubois and Joe Joyce have agreed to terms for April 18

Daniel Dubois and Joe Joyce have agreed to terms for April 18

Daniel Dubois and Joe Joyce have agreed to terms for April 18

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In HUGE news, British heavyweights Daniel Dubois (14-0, 13 KOs) and Joe Joyce (10-0, 9 KOs) have agreed to terms for a clash on April 18th at the O2 Arena in London, England. [@MikeCoppinger breaking the story]. This is a monstrous fight that will attract a lot of attention, not just in the UK, but worldwide as well.

 Although the title that will be on the line for the Joyce vs. Dubois fight is just the British heavyweight strap, the winner of the fight will move up the world rankings. The British belt is more of a trinket title that means zero compared to overall big picture in terms of world rankings that will come from this.

With Joyce and Dubois coming to an agreement on the fight, it means that Joe won’t be taking the match against Filip Hrgovic. The European Boxing Union ordered Joyce vs. Hrgovic for their heavyweight title. It’s a fight that would have been winnable one for the 6’6″ Joyce, since he already beat Hrgovic in the World Series of Boxing.

Don’t count Joyce out
Dubois, 22, will likely be the clear favorite to win this fight, but that doesn’t mean a whole lot. The experience is on Joyce’s side, and he’s got the movement, the engine and the body punching to win this fight.

The easy pick is to go with Dubois as the winner, considering how great he looked in his last six fights as a pro. He destroyed his last opponent Kyotaro Fujimoto in 2 rounds last December, and did the same to Ebenezer Tetteh. However, those weren’t good fighters, and it’s pretty obvious that Dubois’ promoter has been matching him softly without testing him at all.

While that’s the normal thing for promoters to do with young prospects, it often disguises the fact the fighter is badly flawed. That may be the case with Dubois. He looked great against the fodder level opponents that he’s been fighting, but you can see glimpses of weakness if you look hard.

 

 

The experience that the 34-year-old Joyce could prove to be too much for Dubois to handle. There’s a reason why Joyce captured silver medal in the 2016 Olympics. The guy is good, and he arguably should have been given the gold in his fight in the finals against Tony Yoka of France. Had Joyce been given the gold medal in the Olympics that year, there would be no question that he would be the favorite in a fight with Dubois.