Trainer Ronnie Shields has dropped something of a bombshell by stating how his heavyweight Filip Hrgovic is set to fight in Saudi Arabia on June 1, with Shields telling W.A.W Boxing that his guy, the current IBF number-one contender, could “possibly” fight Daniel Dubois.
“We just found out that Hrgovic is going to be fighting on June 1 and it’s possibly going to be against Daniel Dubois in Saudi Arabia,” Shields said.
As fans know, June 1 in Saudi Arabia will see the light heavyweight unification showdown between unbeaten champions Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol. It is also expected that the under-card will be provided by the ‘Five against Five,’ this comprising of five Eddie Hearn/Matchroom fighters going up against five fighters from Frank Warren’s Queensbury stable.
Hrgovic is a Matchroom fighter, while Dubois is of course under the Queensbury umbrella. So, has Ronnie let it slip that this will be the heavyweight fight on the 5 Vs. 5? Maybe. And what an interesting match up Hrgovic Vs. Dubois is. Hrgovic, unbeaten at 17-0(14) has been waiting for his shot at a world title for the longest time. Dubois, 20-2(19) has picked up a secondary version of the WBA heavyweight belt but he is currently ranked at #4 in the latest IBF heavyweight rankings.
There had been plenty of quite recent talk about Anthony Joshua possibly fighting Hrgovic for the vacant IBF belt (with Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk expected to be stripped of the belt for not facing mandatory Hrgovic, the two instead boxing a far more lucrative second fight, thus giving up the belt) – with AJ looking to take this route to become a three-time heavyweight champ. Now, if Shields is right, we will get Hrgovic-Dubois instead.
Could it be that Hrgovic-Dubois will decide the IBF heavyweight strap? And who wins if, or when, Hrgovic and Dubois do fight one another? We fight fans could be in for another genuine Saudi blockbuster on June 1st.