I sparred Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois – one man is getting KO’d inside five

In his latest column, former Olympian and heavyweight contender Frazer Clarke reflects on his personal experience sparring Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois and picks his winner for Saturday night at Wembley…

Dubois has proven a lot of people wrong

Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois are two fighters I am very familiar with and I often get asked who hits harder out of the two.

It is a different type of punch. Joshua punches like a mule, there is no mistake about that. But Daniel is really heavy handed with a single heavy shot. With combination punches, AJ has the speed and the power advantage. But they are both huge punchers in different ways.

Daniel has had his heart questioned after those defeats to Joe Joyce and Oleksandr Usyk, especially with the former back in 2020. But it has been a great resurgence for Daniel. He has proven a few people wrong which you need to do in this sport. When you have people doubting you, it seems to bring the very best out of a lot of fighters. It worked for myself certainly and it has worked for Daniel.

There is no mistaking he is the underdog in this fight and that could be something that helps him through it. There are not many times in his career Daniel has been the underdog. He’s a fighter who have been promoted and moved very well.

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The Joyce and Usyk losses were huge but he has been managed very well around them. ‘AJ’ is the favourite but if you are the man who beats Anthony Joshua, you become a household name, everything changes. He’ll be relishing it.

We caught a glimpse of things kicking off between these two back in June – the time Dubois offered to ‘go right now’ with Joshua showing he was ready for that.

I don’t think Daniel was at home in that situation, he was acting on impulse. He wasn’t comfortable at all when he said ‘we can go right now’. That’s just not his style. But his team will be reminding him  of the importance of that side of things and you can’t show any fear otherwise ‘AJ’ will kill you.

But in a nutshell, Daniel isn’t about that life. I don’t know him very well but I know him well enough to know that was a fish out of water situation.

I was there for the famous sparring story

I have done loads of rounds with both of them over the years. I did some rounds with Daniel a couple of weeks ago as well as part of my preparation for Fabio Wardley and his preparation for ‘AJ’.

I was there for the famous sparring story. I know exactly what happened. But I’m all for the codes. What happened in that gym needs to stay in that gym. A few people have been talking about the last few weeks, revealing what they said happened and that’s their own prerogative.

But I have nothing to gain from talking about what happened close to 10 years ago watching a sparring session. It was a good spar, there were competitive rounds, both fighters got hurt and that is about all that needs to be said.

My fight prediction

Daniel has shown he gets caught a lot early on in fights and that is something you just can’t afford to do in this one. But I am sure he will have had a look at his last few fights, spotted the mistakes to try and alter that a little bit.

You have to have a good defence against ‘AJ’, it doesn’t matter who you are. With the power and speed he hits you with, you just cannot afford to take shots. You are going to get hit, that’s the nature of the beast but you cannot get hit clean too often because there is only one way it ends.

I have AJ as a favourite and believe he will get the victory in good fashion. AJ gets him out of there inside five rounds, I think.

But whatever happens, the future is still bright for Daniel Dubois. Win, lose or draw, we will see him in huge fights in the coming years. He is 27 and he has fought the top boys in the division already. He will keep improving so he isn’t going anywhere.

Preparation for Fabio Wardley rematch

Training camp is in full swing for Fabio Wardley and the British title rematch in October. It was something we were looking into for a long time, something I wanted straight away and something Fabio wanted too. It had to make sense though.

It is definitely a bigger fight than our first meeting and we have ended up on one of the biggest cards out there on the Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol bill. So it has done itself justice in getting where it deserves to be. It was a great feeling to get it over the line and hopefully this time I come out on the right side of the decision.

I couldn’t tell you how Fabio is feeling right now. But in my mind, I am going in there as the challenger, to beat a champion. I am not going to do anything different other than coming out with the victory. I’m not really thinking too much about anything else minute, just focused on the day in and day out life of training right now. 

We are getting it done in the gym. At this stage of camp, it is hard, it is gruelling but we are getting it done to make sure the outcome is the one we want come October.

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