Daniel Dubois vs Joseph Parker Preview Feb. 22nd, 2025
Former WBA ‘regular’ Heavyweight Champion Daniel Dubois of England puts his IBF Title on the line this Saturday, Feb. 22nd when he takes on former WBO Beltholder Jospeh Parker of New Zealand. The 12-rounder from Saudi Arabia can be seen live on pay per view. Dubois last boxed in September when he dropped former world champion Anthony Joshua in the first, third and fourth rounds and stopped him for good in the fifth to claim the IBF Title. Dubois stopped Filip Hrgovic in the eighth round last June to capture the IBF Interim Title. Parker last saw action in March when he got up from the canvas in rounds three and eight to beat Zhilei Zhang via a 12-round majority decision for the WBO Interim Heavyweight Crown.
Dubois vs Parker Betting Odds
Here are the betting odds from online sportsbook BetOnline.ag (full review here).
- Joseph Parker +200
- Daniel Dubois -260
My Pick
The 27-year-old Dubois stopped Ebenezer Tetteh in the second round in September, 2019 for the vacant Commonwealth and WBO International Heavyweight Titles after stopping Nathan Gorman in the fifth round in July, 2019 for the vacant British Heavyweight Title. However, he lost all of those belts to Joe Joyce in November, 2020 when he took a knee in the 10th round and decided not to carry on due to taking Joyce’s jabs all night long and suffering eye damage.
He returned seven months later to halt Bogdan Dinu in the second round before stopping Joe Cusumano in one round and beating Trevor Bryan for the WBA Regular Title by stopping him in the fourth round in June, 2022. Dubois suffered three knockdowns in the first round at the hands of Kevin Lerena but managed to stop him in the third round and that earned him a shot at Oleksandr Usyk and his heavyweight titles in August, 2023, but he was halted in the ninth round. Dubois rebounded by stopping Jarrell Miller in the 10th and final round in December, 2023 and Filip Hrgovic in eight rounds last June. Of course he then pulled off a bigger upset by destroying Joshua.
The comparisons with fellow elite British heavyweights such as Tyson Fury, Joyce and Joshua are somewhat understandable as Dubois stands 6-feet-5-inches tall with a 78-inch and has plenty of power. He makes the ring walk with a mark of 22-2 and has stopped 21 of his 24 opponents for a highly-impressive current knockout ratio of 95.4 per cent in his victories. Dubois enjoyed a fine amateur career, reportedly losing just six of 75 bouts and winning gold medals at various tournaments. He didn’t fight in the Olympics though as he decided to turn pro instead in 2017.
Dubois was brought along rather cautiously as a pro but has been pretty active with 24 fights under his belt but has just 95 rounds of pro experience due to his long list of knockouts. His most recognizable opponents have included Joshua, Hrgovic, Miller, Usyk, Lerena, Bryan, Joyce, Dignu, Nathan Gorman, Kevin Johnson and Razvan Cojanu so he’s fought his share of tough opponents over the past few years. The only three men who haven’t been stopped by Dubois have been Usyk, Joyce and Johnson.
Although he was outclassed by Joyce, Dubois was oddly enough ahead on two of the judges’ scorecards at the time of the stoppage. Dubois usually tips the scales between 230 and 250 lbs and his career has been based on power. He can cause damage with either hand but isn’t the most mobile heavyweight in the ring. He has mediocre to decent hand speed and his chin looked a little shaky when he was dropped three times in the first stanza by Lerena and halted by Usyk.
The 33-year-old Parker, who is now based in England, enters the bout with a mark of 35-3 with 23 Ko’s. He won the regular WBO Title in December, 2016 by beating Andy Ruiz Jr. by majority decision but lost it via unanimous decision to Anthony Joshua in March, 2018 in a unification bout. His second defeat was a controversial 12-round unanimous decision to Dillian Whyte in August, 2018 for the vacant WBO International and the WBC Silver Heavyweight Titles and his third and last loss was to Joe Joyce in September, 2022 when he was stopped in the 11th round of a slugfest for the vacant interim WBO Crown.
Parker has pretty good power in his punches as 65.7 per cent of his wins have come by stoppage but has gone the distance in 11of his last 17 fights with all three of his losses coming in his last 14 outings. Earlier in his career, Parker’s power was his strong point but he’s had to depend on his underrated boxing skills and hand speed more often in the past few years. He went the distance five times in a row from 2016 to 2018 against Whyte, Joshua, Hughie Fury, Razvan Cojanu and Ruiz before stopping Alexander Flores, Alex Leapai and Shawndell Winters all in a row between December, 2018 and February, 2020.
Since then, he’s beaten Junior Fa and Dereck Chisora (twice) by decisions before falling to Joyce and rebounding with a points win over Jack Massey, a first-round stoppage of Faiga Opelu, a third-round win over Simon Kean and a unanimous decision over Deontay Wilder. Parker needs to be able to fight the full three minutes of every round if he’s forced to. He landed several bombs against Joyce but was worn down and out of gas when stopped with just five minutes to go in the fight. Parker won the WBO Oriental Heavyweight Championship by stopping Brian Minto in seven rounds in 2014 and has won several other regional heavyweight titles.
These include the WBO Oriental, OPBF, WBC International and WBO Inter-Continental Crowns. Parker also has wins over Alexander Dimitrenko, Carlos Takam, Marcelo Luiz Nascimento, Kali Meehan, Bowie Tupou, Jason Pettaway, Frans Botha and Sherman Williams. Parker turned pro in 2005 after an excellent amateur career and has 250 rounds under his belt since. He also has decent size for a modern-day heavyweight at 6-feet-4-inches with a 76-inch reach but gives up an inch in height and two inches in reach to Dubois.
Parker’s not the most athletic and mobile boxer in the ring though and generally has trouble against fleet-footed and mobile opponents. He also leaves himself open for counter shots but doesn’t mind taking one or two punches to land one of his own. His chin has been pretty reliable so far after being tested quite often even though he was halted by Joyce and dropped by Zhang. Parker needs to instill a killer instinct as he staggered Joyce on several occasions and waited far too long to go after Dillian Whyte as he virtually had him out on his feet just as the bell rang and paid the price for not letting his hands go earlier.
Prediction…
Dubois once had a bit of a reputation of lacking heart as he didn’t deal with adversity very well against Joe Joyce and Oleksandr Usyk but he may have turned the corner now as he showed plenty of it against Filip Hrgovic, Jarrell Miller and Anthony Joshua as he went to-to-toe with them and pounded out impressive stoppage wins. He also got up three times from the canvas in the first round against Kevin Lerena and stopped him two rounds later. Dubois looked very good against Miller, Hrgovic and Joshua as he displayed speed and fine combination punching and absorbed heavy shots from all of them. Parker is six years older than Dubois and his power hasn’t been evident lately as he’s used his boxing skills to frustrate Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang. He won’t want to get into a brawl with Dubois but needs to land something significant to stop the champion from charging in. It wouldn’t surprise me if either guy went down for the count or if it goes the distance. Dubois and Parker should both be confident after their past few performances and the fight will come down to power, chins and the will to win. At his best, Parker should be able to handle Dubois, but the champion is on a roll at the moment and may be peaking at the right time. I’ll give Dubois the slight edge.
Dubois’ power and new-found confidence may do the trick.
Play: Dubois -260 @ BetOnline.ag
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Daniel Dubois betting • Joseph Parker betting