Daniel Dubois will finally fight for the first time in 10 months when he faces WBA regular heavyweight champ Trevor Bryan.
Legendary promoter Don King won the purse bids for the contest and is staging it on June 11 in Miami. Dubois has not fought since stopping Joe Cusumano in Cleveland in one round at the end of August and he will be in line for a shot at the WBA Super title should he win.
Bryan has won all 22 of his pro fights and Dubois’ promoter Frank Warren has a warning for his rising heavyweight star. Warren claims Dubois must be switched on against Bryan and not think it is “some knock-over job”.
The Queensberry Promotions chief confirmed Dubois would be facing Bryan, saying: “He’ll fight next on June 11 in Florida, Don King is promoting it.
“Our man is training very hard for the fight and we want to get it on.
“We had to go to the purse bid scenario and at the end of the day, Mr King has made a bid and he’s got to deliver on it. He says he will, the date has been set and he’s got a show together.
“We just want our man to fight and get in the ring with Bryan.
“I don’t want him to think it’s some knock-over job and he’s got to be at 100 per cent.
“But he’s in a great position. If he wins that fight he’s the mandatory for the WBA champion, which is Usyk at the moment.”
Dubois, 24, has had to be patient as he rebuilds his career after his first pro loss to Joe Joyce at the end of November 2020 in a behind-closed-doors fight at Church House, Westminster.
He has only had two fights since then and Warren says he has had to be inactive while he waited for his WBA shot as their No 1 contender.
He claims he would have lost his shot at Bryan and the regular title if he had taken another fight.
“Daniel has been in a position where over the last six or seven months it’s been very frustrating for him,” said the Hall of Fame promoter, who was speaking at the announcement of his new three-year deal with BT Sport.
“He could have fought on any of our shows, but he was in a position of being the mandatory for that WBA position and had we done anything, they would have moved to the next available guy, so he’s had to sit there twiddling his thumbs waiting for this to happen.”
Warren says Dubois’ clash with Bryan underlines how healthy British heavyweight boxing is.
Tyson Fury holds the WBC and Ring magazine belts as the division’s No 1 while Joyce is the WBO’s mandatory challenger.
“It’s a great time for British heavyweight boxing and I remember a time when we had heavyweights who had plenty of heart, but would always lose when they challenged for the title,” he said.
“Now look at it and we have Tyson, Daniel and Joe who is the WBO’s mandatory.”
