As maligned as heavyweight Trevor Bryan’s WBA belt is, this Saturday’s fight between the unbeaten New Yorker and London’s one-beaten Daniel Dubois is an interesting match-up and hopefully we will get a good fight in Florida. Bryan had held the version of the WBA heavyweight title he currently holds for some time, yet for many this Saturday will see the 32 year old tested most severely.
Bryan has wins over BJ Flores, Bermane Stiverne and, last time out, Jonathan Guidry and he is 22-0(15) overall. Dubois has had two wins since losing to Joe Joyce and he is 17-1(16). This could be a tough fight for both men. Bryan says he is “levels above” his 24 year old challenger, and he has also called Dubois a quitter, this for the way “Dynamite” took a knee, his eye badly banged up, in the Joyce fight.
“I’m gonna give my heart, my soul and every inch, every bit of strength I have in this fight because, even with heavyweights, this career doesn’t last long,” Bryan told Unibet Lowdown. “Every opportunity I do get with names like Daniel Dubois and after this, you want to fight your hardest and show everybody you have the heart and the skills. He (Dubois) begged for this fight and now he has it. He has to pay for it. He’s fought some good guys, But I am on a different level. You saw that when he came up against some good opposition – he quit.”
The “quit” tag seems to be stuck to Dubois, with a number of pundits labelling Dubois a quitter right after the fight that took place in November of 2020. A win over Bryan won’t silence this talk but it might help. Dubois is seen by some as a heavy favourite to win on Saturday, while others, including Frank Warren, have cautioned Dubois against going in and “going for a blow-out.”
Bottom line: we don’t really know how good Bryan is, while the same thing could be said of Dubois. Hopefully we will find out more about the fighting abilities of both men on Saturday night.
Prediction: In sticking with my initial pick, I’m going for Dubois to win by crushing KO inside five rounds.