Skip to content
Home » Daniel Dubois in ‘top five’ for a year but doesn’t get Tyson Fury shot

Daniel Dubois in ‘top five’ for a year but doesn’t get Tyson Fury shot

  • by
  • 3 min read

Promoter Frank Warren named his top five heavyweights again this week, putting Daniel Dubois in there during the promotion for Tyson Fury’s next fight.

A massive uproar greeted the decision for “The Gypsy King” to oppose Derek Chisora again, a foe he’s defeated twice and the last time very painfully.

But after the fans’ anger, which Warren played down in his latest column, the Londoner stated at the press conference that Chisora ‘was the next best in line.’

Frank Warren’s Top Five Heavyweights

However, that’s not strictly the case if you look at Warren’s own top five heavyweights worldwide. They haven’t changed much in the past year.

Last October, Warren outlined the best five top division fighters, when saying: “I put Tyson at number one as he’s head and shoulders above all of them.

“He’s a magnificent champion and would be up there with the greats from all eras. He stands with them.

“I’ll be a bit biased, and we promote Joe Joyce, who’s the WBO number one. We are also involved with Daniel Dubois, who is the number one in the WBA [at that time, he’s now the secondary champion].

“Then you’ve got Usyk, so we saw what he did with Anthony Joshua. Then you’ve got Dillian Whyte.

“So, if you want me to put them in order, Tyson is number one, Usyk number two. I think the other three, you can [put] all them joint as far as I see it.

“I don’t think Dillian has the beating of the other two guys. We made offers for him to fight them, which he didn’t take.

“Anthony Joshua, I think he comes in at number six now.”

Tyson Fury vs Daniel Dubois

Fury defeated Whyte last April in his mandatory obligation, which drops him out of the picture. But essentially, the rest didn’t alter for Warren.

Therefore, if Dubois remains in the top five heavyweights and is fighting on the same night as Fury, why didn’t Queensberry give the fans a better main event?

Despite being the WBA’s secondary champion [meaningless] and the fight not being able to be a unification, Dubois could still have asked for special dispensation from the WBC to relinquish that title and fight for the WBC.

Before winning the WBA regular, Dubois was ranked highly by the World Boxing Council, so all could undoubtedly have gotten worked out.

Instead, on December 3rd at Tottenham Stadium in London, two bouts occur that the vast majority of fans don’t want to see.

Dubois battles predominant cruiserweight Kevin Lerena in what is a surefire knockout. Fury battles Chisora who he’s already beaten to a pulp.

The UK fans are tired of promoters not making the right fights as boxing slowly dies in front of their eyes. At least put Chisora or Dubois to the fans in a voting capacity if you want to gauge the market.

But Warren either doesn’t want Dubois to lose again as he doesn’t think he can win, or he sees a more lucrative market in keeping Dubois for another day against another heavyweight.

If that is the case, it makes a mockery of Warren’s top-five list. Indeed if Dubois is top five, he’s ready for Tyson Fury.

The views expressed in this article are the opinions of Phil Jay.

WBN Editor Phil Jay has over ten years of boxing news experience. Follow WBN on Facebook @officialworldboxingnews, Instagram, and Twitter @worldboxingnews.