Daniel Dubois can ill afford “one mistake” against Anthony Joshua otherwise he risks being knocked out like Francis Ngannou, Eddie Hearn has warned.
Hearn alongside Frank Warren are teaming up to promote Joshua’s clash with IBF heavyweight world champion, Dubois at Wembley Stadium on Saturday.
The 27-year-old was elevated from interim champion to full titlist shortly after halting Filip Hrgovic in June, whilst ‘AJ’ is on a run of three consecutive stoppages.
Joshua laid out ex-UFC heavyweight champion, Ngannou in two rounds in March, five months after the 38-year-old dropped Tyson Fury, before suffering a controversial split decision defeat.
Hearn insists Dubois will suffer a similar fate to the Cameroonian if he makes any errors.
“People want to discredit Ngannou but look at what he did against Fury,” the Matchroom Chairman told Sky Sports.
“In my opinion, he beat him. Anthony made it a mismatch and he needed a pillow.
“If Daniel Dubois wants to get hit by the right hand and wants to make sloppy mistakes, the same thing that happened to Ngannou will happen to him.
“If you get hit by Anthony Joshua at the moment, you are going to sleep.
“If Daniel Dubois comes out aggressively like he did against [Filip] Hrgovic, you’re going to get a fire fight.
“And if he makes one mistake, it’s night-night for Daniel Dubois.”
Much of the pre-fight build-up has centred around whether ‘Dynamite’ dropped the Watford man during a sparring session which took place seven years ago, whilst both men were on Team GB.
Hearn, who has promoted the 34-year-old since he turned professional after winning gold at the 2012 Olympics, insists the significance of the rumours are overplayed.
“When they [Queensberry] signed Dubois, the narrative that was being spun was that Dubois flattened AJ,” Hearn told Pro Boxing Fans.
“Now all of a sudden we’re finding out that he rocked him with a left hook, AJ had a little stroll around the ring and then he carried on sparring.
“If you get badly hurt in sparring, you do not carry on the spar.
“The fact that they carried on the spar, tells you everything that you need to know about how hurt he was.
“I’m sure he has been buzzed in sparring, not just by Daniel Dubois, by various, different people, because they’re big heavyweight lumps and when you get hit clean on the chin, that happens.”
