AS 96,000 individuals streamed out of the Wembley gates, a well-stacked pile of best-laid plans floated gently into the London night time sky. Earlier than his headline project in opposition to Daniel Dubois, Anthony Joshua, the pay-per-view star and long-time poster boy of British boxing, was already being requested about potential battles with the likes of Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.
Fury and Usyk are tied up in a December rematch, whereas AJ has already failed to higher Usyk over 24 rounds. That had not stopped discuss of Joshua’s subsequent strikes, ought to he beat Daniel Dubois…
After his fellow British banger iced AJ, a rematch now appears extra sensible than a conflict with both of the large boys. It had all been going so swimmingly beneath the stewardship of recent coach Ben Davison.
Wins constructed upon wins. Momentum gently gathered. Joshua appeared assured when dispatching the likes of Robert Helenius, Otto Wallin and Francis Ngannou. However none of them introduced the starvation and uncooked punching energy of Frank Warren’s dynamite destroyer.
The rebuild would solely be formally accomplished when a win over a dwell canine was achieved. As Ben Davison jumped into the ring, pushing referee Marcus McDonnell apart, with Joshua mendacity stricken on the canvas, the most recent a part of Operation AJ was a criminal offense scene clean-up.
Brushing previous a quartet of fringe contenders, together with a noble artwork novice (Ngannou) who had raised his inventory from a Fury ruffling, Joshua had his eyes on that three-time world championship reign.
It wasn’t to be. Daniel Dubois noticed to that. Joshua was ropey from the beginning. Staggering, dazed, clinging on within the clinches, neglecting his top-class jab because the mind cells fluttered. Although it’s not ultimate, a Dubois rematch is the comeback key for a 34-year-old stumbling in the direction of the tip. Failure to proper the wrongs of final night time will imply the tip of any fleeting hopes of Fury or Usyk.
