Promoter Frank Warren has revealed that he looked to make Joseph Parker against Daniel Dubois before he signed Parker to face Fabio Wardley.
Dubois, coming off a resounding loss at Wembley Stadium to Oleksandr Usyk, is injured, however, and will not be back until 2026.
Instead, Wardley and Parker headline at London’s O2 Arena on October 25.
“Daniel’s got to get himself back in the swing of things,” said Warren. “He won't fight again until the new year. He’s got an injury. We were trying to make Joe against Daniel for this October show, but he’s injured. That’s how Fabio jumped in.”
The post-fight headlines of Dubois’ loss to Parker surrounded a party before the fight, and Warren said meetings had taken place to address what happened.
“We had a meeting a couple of weeks ago,” said Warren. “The verdict is, everybody better learn from it or otherwise he won’t have a career.”
Dubois has subsequently hired Sam Jones as his manager, split with trainer Don Charles and padman Kieran Farrell left the team.
“Don’s done a good job. He’s done a very good job,” Warren added. “And there’s a lot of things that hopefully they’ll learn from what happened on the night. But you can’t take it away from Usyk. Usyk’s done what he had to do. He [Dubois] had two good rounds. He was doing okay, but Daniel, he just wasn’t there. I think he’s a great fighter, Usyk. He’s a great fighter. Daniel blew his chance. Blew his chance for various reasons. I thought he had a good couple of first rounds. And then it just wasn’t to be. And he got beat by the better fighter on the night. But Usyk, I look at him and I think to myself, ‘I can see the type of fighter that’d beat him,’ but he beats them.”
Asked about whom Warren may match Dubois with when he comes back, the International Boxing Hall of Fame promoter said: “He’s got to fight somebody... He’s got to re-establish himself. He’s 28 now. There’s no warm-ups. It’s in there; in with somebody.”
