As fans may have read last week, Lucas Browne has been given the elbow by The BBB of C, and “Big Daddy” will not be facing Daniel Dubois as was originally planned. 43 year old Browne has been left fuming over the way he was rejected as a challenger for the “regular” version of the WBA heavyweight strap Dubois holds, this for being “too old.”
So, who will “Dynamite” fight next instead? According to Mike Coppinger, Dubois could face South Africa’s Keven Lerena, in the UK (venue to be confirmed) on November 26. The two fighters are in talks, Coppinger reports, close to finalising a deal. There is also a chance the two could fight in December instead.
We know quite a bit about the once-beaten (by Joe Joyce) Dubois; how he can whack and how he is still seen as a future heavyweight champion (a real one!). But who is Lerena? The southpaw from South Africa is 30 years old and he has fought most of his fights at cruiserweight, where he won the IBO title. Since moving up to heavyweight three fights ago, Lerena has gone 3-0(2). 28-1(14) overall, Lerena picked up a decent enough points win over Mariusz Wach in his last fight, this at least proving that the former 200 pounder who has never been stopped can handle a big guy.
Still, Dubois, 18-1(17) will no doubt be a big favourite to win this fight, and not just because he enjoys a higher profile. Dubois has won three on the spin since suffering that gruesome eye injury against Joyce, this playing a huge part in his TKO defeat, and he is hungry. Lerena is too, and we could get a good fight here, who knows. Lerena is pretty fast and he has fought away from home before (in Germany and in Denmark).
And Dubois could, maybe, struggle somewhat with Lerena’s southpaw stance. But this fight may well prove to be a pretty tough sell. It is hard to predict anything but a Dubois win, most likely by stoppage; what with Lerena giving away both height and weight. Still, this is the heavyweight division, where almost anything can happen.