There’s much doubt among fans about Anthony Joshua’s ability to stand up to the bombardment of power shots that he will be hit with by IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois on September 21st at Wembley Stadium. A Carefully Crafted Narrative? Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) is going into the Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs) fight as a favorite based on his recent wins against 0-1 novice Francis Ngannou and journeyman Otto Wallin, but those victories don’t mean anything. What’s important is whether the soon-to-be 35-year-old Joshua’s punch resistance and poor stamina have improved enough for him to handle the fast pace and hard blows that the 26-year-old Dubois will be hitting him with. I don’t think it has.

Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s promoter, has done a masterful job of camouflaging his downward spiral after his consecutive defeats against Oleksandr Usyk by putting him with four second-tier fighters, but that has not changed the reality of AJ’s situation. Hearn has created an illusion of Joshua’s resurgence, but it’s false. Doubts About Durability The truth is Joshua is an older fighter who is weak in the chin and is heading toward what will likely be a brutal knockout loss to Dubois. Hearn can’t save Joshua in this case because he must fight Dubois to give himself credibility after the four confidence boosters he was put in with.

“People keep saying that this fight is a shootout. AJ, top sniper,” said Hearn to IFLTV, trying to build up Joshua. “You don’t want a shootout with AJ because he’s too sharp and accurate, but Dubois is very heavy-handed,” said Hearn

Of course, Dubois would want a “shootout with AJ” because Joshua has trouble in fights where he was hurt during brawls with fighters. We saw that happen in Joshua’s loss to Andy Ruiz Jr. and his fight with Wladimir Klitschko. Joshua would have lost to the then 41-year-old Wladimir if he had gone for the finish after dropping AJ. A Tarnished Prize What takes some of the shine away from the Joshua-Dubois fight is they’re fighting for the IBF belt, which champion Oleksandr Usyk had to give up. It looks bad that Joshua & Dubois, two former victims of Usyk, are fighting for his throwaway. It seems shameful and without value. Why would they want the IBF belt when it’s been tossed to them by a fighter that beat them?