And the new! Daniel Dubois is now the WBA’s ‘regular’ world heavyweight champion
(Picture: Getty Images)Daniel Dubois easily knocked out Trevor Bryan to become the new WBA ‘regular’ heavyweight champion of the world in Florida on Saturday night.
The Londoner, a former British and Commonwealth champion, dominated the opening exchanges on a somewhat surreal night at Casino Miami promoted by the now 90-year-old Don King, boxing well behind the left jab with his overmatched opponent quickly forced into survival mode.
Bryan was clearly hurt in round three but showed impressive powers of recovery to make it to the bell, although he simply could not withstand the increasing pressure in the fourth as Dubois cleverly detonated two powerful left hooks with all the focus on his favoured right hand, the second of which left the defending champion lying face down on the canvas with a one-sided bout quickly waved off.
As well as claiming the WBA’s secondary title, victory saw Dubois, now 18-1 with 17 knockouts, become the mandatory challenger for the organisation’s ‘super’ belt and put himself in line for a potential shot at Oleksandr Usyk, Anthony Joshua or perhaps even Tyson Fury in future.
Usyk seized that title - as well as the IBF, WBO and IBO versions - from Joshua at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last September and the pair’s rematch in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, initially scheduled to take place next month, is now expected to happen in mid-August.
There were reports on Saturday that the retired Fury was already locked in talks over facing the winner of Usyk-Joshua 2 also in Saudi in December, but he promptly hit back at those claims on social media, calling them the “biggest load of rubbish ever”.
Dubois - who namechecked Dillian Whyte and Joseph Parker as potential next opponents - also continued his impressive comeback from a shock stoppage defeat suffered at the hands of domestic rival Joe Joyce in November 2020 that threatened to derail his promising career and left him nursing a fractured eye socket.
‘DDD’ easily stopped Bogdan Dinu in a low-key comeback fight in Telford last June before knocking out Joe Cusumano inside the first round on his US debut on the Jake Paul-Tyron Woodley undercard in Cleveland.
Saturday’s defeat, meanwhile, was the first in the 23-fight professional career of American Bryan, who claimed the WBA ‘regular’ title with a late stoppage of the ageing Bermane Stiverne last summer before defending it once with a split-decision win over Jonathan Guidry in January.
