Reporting note: this article draws on Sky Sports; LodiScore provides the summary and editorial framing.
Daniel Dubois wants the Dubois Itauma fight to happen sooner rather than later. The WBO heavyweight champion said he and Moses Itauma cannot afford to repeat the mistake made by Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, who were British rivals for almost a decade before finally agreeing to box in December.
Dubois is 29 and a two-time world champion. Itauma is 21 and already a world title challenger. The pairing is the obvious next rivalry in the British heavyweight division, and Dubois has no interest in letting it age.
Why the Dubois Itauma fight should not wait
"I want to fight him sooner," Dubois told Sky Sports. "Moses, anyone that can give me a challenge. All the toughest fighters out there I want to face."
Fury and Joshua spent years circling each other at their peak without signing. Dubois, who holds the WBO belt, frames that as a warning rather than a template.
The December meeting between Fury and Joshua will settle a rivalry that was never contested at the right time. For Dubois, the delay is the cautionary part of the story, not the fight itself.
"Let's see what happens," he said. "I'm the one experienced in these situations now. So let's see."
He added: "I'll break them down now. I feel like I'm at that stage now. I know how I'll have to break them all down, whoever I get in the ring with next, I'll smash them up."
Moses Itauma and the Hrgovic test
Dubois expects Itauma to return to world title contention. "Of course he can. He had the whole industry behind him. They won't let him give up I don't think," he said.
He described Itauma's fight with Hrgovic as a lesson rather than a humiliation. "It was a great fight between him and Hrgovic, so there's no shame in that really," Dubois said.
"Hrgovic just showed him that there's always someone out there that's stronger willed than you. More determination and he's got kids to feed."
Dubois did not soften the point, and he did not write Itauma off either. The assessment is blunt: will is the currency, and the body carrying it has to hold.
Fabio Wardley rematch and the hardest puncher claim
Dubois defended the WBO title in two rounds in his rematch with Fabio Wardley. He says the power behind those finishes is not yet fully spent.
"I am. I've shown myself over the years as well," he said when asked whether he is the hardest puncher in world boxing.
"I don't think I've even touched the surface yet really. I'm just starting to unload properly now. It's going to be a good few next fights," he said. He smiled as he said it.
He described the Wardley performance in his own terms. "I'd say call it determination, just call it determination, will to win and a little bit crazy," Dubois said. "So it's good."
Joe Joyce, Oleksandr Usyk and the rebuild
The record behind him is not clean. Joe Joyce stopped him. Oleksandr Usyk beat him twice. Dubois says those nights are the reason the current version exists.
"Who's had a career like mine? Coming back from losses and then banging out good fighters," he said. "So I've been showing myself that I've got that power for a long time."
"Broken me down and rebuilt me again a few times. It's interesting. Of course, from the first fight with Joe Joyce, a few, Usyk and all those events I feel like they make you stronger."
No opponent has been named for Dubois's next defence, and no date has been set for a meeting with Itauma. The champion's position is that the fight should be made while both men are still rising.
Dubois is 29. Itauma is 21. The Fury-Joshua precedent took roughly a decade. Dubois would rather not wait that long.
The original report was published by skysports.com.