Shared opponent provides exclusive insight into September’s Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois IBF world title fight

It’s the Battle for London on September 14 as South London’s Daniel Dubois clashes with North London’s Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium.

Greenwich-born Daniel Dubois (21-2, 20KO) will defend his IBF World heavyweight title to Watford’s Anthony Joshua (28-3, 25KO) at the English football team’s national stadium, live on pay-per-view.

A 95% KO ratio (Dubois) added to 89% (AJ) equals war! Someone will land and the other will fall… but who? Welshman Dorian Darch, a Civil Engineer from Tredegar, Wales, now retired from professional boxing, is best placed to give that answer having shared the ring with both boxers.

Astonishingly, both Dubois and Joshua each beat Darch by the exact same time – 51 seconds of round two. So, with 231 seconds of intimate knowledge on each opponent, the 40-year-old gave SportsBoom the exclusive insight on Joshua-Dubois…

Image Credits: James Fearn/Getty Images

£5K TO FIGHT ANTHONY JOSHUA

Originally from Aberdare, Dorian Darch fought Anthony Joshua first, in what was the Welshman’s 10th fight, in Cardiff in February 2014, when the Olympian standing opposite was just 3-0. The six-round scheduled contest only lasted two rounds as Joshua secured his fourth KO from as many fights.

“I’m trying to think who I was with at the time, I think I was with Sammy Simms, he was my manager at the time,” Darch began. “He offered me the fight and, as you know, I’d lost to Ian Lewison, so I knew my career wasn’t going anywhere. 

“So Sammy Simms phoned me up and said, ‘been offered the AJ fight if you want it?’ I said, ‘how much?’, and he said ‘five grand’, so that’s all I had for it was five grand because it was a long time ago, was it 2014 / 2015 or something like that? So, I just took the fight, the five grand paid for a nice holiday and the rest is history.

“The first round, I done alright, I thought. If you watch the fight back, I was making him miss. When he catches you once you stay caught, if you know what I mean. He caught me with a right hand towards the end of the first round, in the final seconds, then I was like a pinball in the corner ‘til the bell rung.

Managed by former British featherweight champion Steve “Sammy” Sims, Darch was a winning fighter with seven wins-two losses at the time of fighting AJ. The London 2012 Olympic gold medallist had KO’d all three foes and was the heaviest he’d been for any of his pro bouts up to then.

The away fighter started brightly, throwing two jabs and a right hand to back AJ up in the opening seconds, slipping a jab in the process. The underdog then proceeded to slip a jab, straight right and left hook, true to his word that he made AJ miss.

Darch showed ambition, then took a big straight right on the minute mark, which would prove an indication of what was to come. Darch kept slipping shots then landed a one-two midway through the first, however, with only 12 seconds to go, Darch just found himself in too close, feet slightly out of shape, which AJ took full advantage of and pounced with a trademark straight right, clean on the head, that staggered him backwards, but was able to survive the ensuing onslaught by throwing a couple of right hands back to show he wasn’t completely defenceless.

Darch bravely kept throwing back in the second stanza, but was marked up under his right eye already. Joshua was in full flow by then, landing another huge right hand in the first minute, then another big left hook that caused referee Terry O’Connor to rightfully save him from any more damage.

Some fighters would allow their ego to get better of them and assert that they were fine to carry on, but Darch was refreshingly open about the stoppage:

DUBOIS IS TECHNICALLY BETTER THAN JOSHUA

When he fought the now IBF World heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois in 2017, he was established in his new role as an away fighter, having taken Hughe Fury six-rounds in his previous contest.

20-year-old Dubois was 5-0, with 5 KOs, when they met in December 2017 at the Copper Box Arena, and he was already a Southern Area and WBC World Youth champion by then too.

Reflecting back, Darch immediately shared comparisons from the two rivals, “Dubois is just not as big or hits as hard as Joshua, in my opinion, but he was a better technical boxer.

“Standing next to Anthony Joshua – he’s massive – but Dubois is not that much bigger than me. Dubois did hit hard, don’t get me wrong, but he didn’t have concussive power, in my opinion.

If hadn’t already been made abundantly clear, Darch reiterated that Joshua definitely hits harder than Dubois, “Yeah, a lot harder”, he assured.

“Dubois has come on leaps and bounds since the [Joe] Joyce fight, his character has been built up a lot better, I still don’t think you can develop that power, but he was young when I fought him so you never know, he might have got more powerful. But at the time I fought them both, AJ punched a lot harder.”

Image Credits: AFP via Getty Images

During their fight, Dubois pushed the Welshman back with a jab in the first 10 seconds, but Darch threw a double jab-right hand to answer back. The Londoner was patiently edging forwards looking to land big hooks and uppercuts in close. A right hook landed hurtfully to the chin as they pair came out of a clinch in the final 30 of the first, which encouraged Dubois to pour it on, two big right hands to the temple forcing a knockdown in the final 10 seconds.

Darch flew out the corner in the second, throwing a big right hand, then was caught by another right hand and was soon on the deck for a second time just 12 seconds in. Bravely back on his feet, it was a right-left combo to floor him for a third time, then a massive right hand ended the fight at 51 seconds of round two, the exact same time he lasted with Joshua.
 

JOSHUA-DUBOIS FIGHT PREDICTION

The man from Aberdare was adamant as to who the winner will be, wasting no time in providing his precise prediction for the post-summer punch-up.

He began to explain his reasoning, “Dubois, even though he’s got tremendously better since he lost to Joyce, he just got caught far too much against [Filip] Hrgovic, and you can’t get caught like that against AJ, it’ll just be lights out.

Dorian expanded on his estimation, “I think it’s got to be early to middle Joshua knockout, I reckon. Because I don’t know if you watched Dubois’ last fight to Hrgovic… in all fairness, he took the shots, but you can’t take them shots against AJ. He took around seven to eight right hands and you just can’t physically take them off AJ.”

FROM BOXING TO BARE KNUCKLE

Darch’s last ever fight in a pro boxing ring came in February 2022, over four years ago, against the likeable Dave Allen, which he lost by third-round technical knockout. However, the Welsh warrior is still fighting on, in the BKB circuit, which is the first licensed Bare Knuckle Boxing promotions in the world.

He only just fought himself this month, on August 17, in Cardiff, but was cruelly denied the victory despite knocking his European opponent down. A straight right hand from Volodymyr Skurtu zipped down the left side of Darch’s head, slicing his left ear in half, a direct result of the fists not being gloved.

Boxing is, of course, a highly dangerous sport, but the BBBofC constantly strive to make all licenced contests under their jurisdiction as safe as possible, so it begs the question, why switch to the lesser safe sport of bare knuckle boxing? “It was for two-minute rounds, to be honest,” Darch revealed.

“Back then, I was fed up with fighting up-and-coming boys whose [full-time] job is boxing. It put a bit more of a level playing field for me in bare knuckle, because, don’t get me wrong, bare knuckle is up-and-coming, and a lot of boys I’ve fought in bare knuckle is lower than the standard of boys of which I was boxing, so I had a bit of a chance.”