Anthony Joshua was ringside for the entire Matchroom versus Queensberry card out in Saudi Arabia and had an assured reaction when asked for his thoughts on his potential next opponent.
The card was an entertaining one that saw the men in Frank Warren‘s stable clean up and win every single fight, the majority of them by knockout, against Eddie Hearn‘s stock.
Two were big heavyweight showdowns. One saw 41-year-old Chinese fighter Zhilei Zhang quite possibly putting an end to Deontay Wilder‘s long and storied career with a fifth-round stoppage. The other was a closer contest with plenty of back and forth and big shots landed between Daniel Dubois and Fillip Hrgovic.
The fight never looked like going the distance. Both men came forward hurling in big shots from the first bell. It was Dubois who eventually came out on top after he inflicted cuts so severe on Hrgovic that the doctor stepped in to end the fight, though many have said that by that stage a stoppage with the fists of the Brit was looking increasingly likely anyway.
The win marked back-to-back knockout victories for Dubois, who is now the interim IBF world champion and is widely expected to fight Joshua for the full title at Wembley in September.
Ahead of that potential showdown, Eddie Hearn was asked by Seconds Out what Joshua said when ‘DDD’ got his hand raised.
“‘I’ll f**k everybody up.’
He’s ready to beat anybody and he will beat anybody in the division.”
Joshua has had three knockouts of his own in his last three fights so an all-British contest with Dubois would likely be an all-action affair.