On February of 2025, Daniel Dubois was supposed to defend his IBF title against Joseph Parker. However, Dubois pulled out of the fight at the last moment and Martin Bakole came in as the replacement. Bakole was knocked out by the Kiwi within two rounds of the fight and it wasn’t even close.
Dubois was officially ruled out of the fight due to him suffering from an illness, and instead of rescheduling the fight against Parker, reports suggest that he wanted to fight Oleksandr Usyk, who had previously defeated the Brit by a 9th round knockout, back in 2023. However, Dubois’ plan to fight the Ukrainian is out of the question as Usyk was demanded to fight Joseph Parker instead.
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Joseph Parker, who was supposed to fight Dubois, was surprised when he pulled out of the fight. Parker talked to Ariel Halwani and said “It does feel a bit weird. It feels weird because he (Dubois) was at the public workout and then, just like that, he got real ill and there was no real statement. There was no real proof or doctors. There’s nothing. It feels a bit weird and it feels a bit strange that during that time that Usyk started calling out Dubois saying he wants him next so I’m not saying he wasn’t ill. I’m just saying, I’m not sure what happened.”
No matter what the reason was, now that Parker is finally getting a title shot and a chance to take down the best in the division, we don’t think he cares too much about what happened to Dubois.
Recently, former professional boxer Johnny Nelson weighed in on who deserves to fight Usyk next. Let’s look at what he said.
Since Dubois pulled out of the fight against Parker, Johnny Nelson doesn’t think that Dubois deserves to fight Usyk. Here is what he said;
“He (Parker) deserves it because it was Daniel Dubois that pulled out of the fight. Not Joseph Parker. And it was Daniel Dubois that put himself out of the line for it. So why would Daniel Dubois be awarded a crack, a direct crack of Usyk, when he pulled out of the fight?” Nelson continued “So the right person to get the crack should be Joseph Parker. Why not? He was the one that turned up to fight. He fought. Got the job done.”
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“Daniel Dubois, you know, as long as he wins his next fight, the fight against Usyk, and as long as Usyk wins against Parker, which I expect him to, that fight will always happen. So I can understand it. And in reality, for Usyk, he might acutally look at Joseph Parker and think he’s a soft touch. A softer touch, should I say, in regards to all the other guys that are out there.”
