Daniel Dubois gets ready to defend his IBF World Heavyweight Title against Joseph Parker next month. The fight pits two heavyweights who've been on a roll lately against each other.
Dubois has been on fire recently. He beat Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic, who'd never lost before. He won the interim belt and then got bumped up to full champion when Oleksandr Usyk gave up the title. To top it off, he knocked out Anthony Joshua.
Parker's been doing well too. He outboxed Deontay Wilder and won easily. Before that, he had a tough fight with Zhilei Zhang. Parker got knocked down twice but still managed to win on points.
Chinese heavyweight Zhilei Zhang first thought Dubois would win. He told Box Nation:
"I like both fighters. I respect both fighters. But somewhere in my gut feeling is telling me that Dubois is going to win this one. I admire his style. I like how he approaches fights. I like Parker as well but subconsciously I believe Dubois is going to win it."
But Zhang changed his mind later. He told Fight Hub TV:
"It's hard to predict. I think this is a truly 50/50 fight. I like both of these fighters. I have to say one thing, I'll tell Dubois not to overlook Joseph Parker."
Zhang might be worried that Dubois isn't taking Parker seriously enough. Maybe Dubois is thinking too much about fighting Oleksandr Usyk for all the belts in the future.
The fight's part of a big boxing event on February 22 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The main event is a rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol for all the light-heavyweight belts. Zhang himself will fight Agit Kabayel for the WBC Interim belt on the same night.
Dubois and Parker have already started trading words, setting the stage for what should be an exciting fight.
