Former Daniel Dubois trainer Shane McGuigan has assessed how the newly-crowned WBO champion would fare against heavyweight prodigy Moses Itauma.
The 28-year-old became a two-time world champion last Saturday, twice climbing off the canvas to dethrone Fabio Wardley with a brutal 11th-round finish in Manchester.
In doing so, Dubois silenced any doubts over his fighting spirit while also maintaining a commanding jab, using it to outbox Wardley through large spells of their encounter.
With ‘Dynamite’ having claimed the WBO title, though, there is now a chance that he gets ordered to face leading contender Itauma.
The pair shared multiple rounds of sparring while Dubois was trained by McGuigan, who oversaw the Londoner’s stoppage victories over Trevor Bryan and Kevin Lerena in 2022.
Back then, Itauma was only around 17 or 18 years old, and is now considered a genuine contender following his fifth-round finish over Jermaine Franklin in March.
Dubois, meanwhile, has since gone on to defeat the likes of Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic, Anthony Joshua and now Wardley, all by stoppage and under the watchful eye of head coach Don Charles.
But despite Dubois’ improvements in recent years, former trainer McGuigan has told Boxing News that he feels Itauma would be a step too far.
“I don’t think it’s a great fight for Daniel. Daniel’s a guy that has to know he can get to you.
“Against Hrgovic, he knew he could get to him – he didn’t get discouraged. Against Miller, he knew he could get to him.
“But, against [Oleksandr] Usyk, he didn’t believe [he could get to him]. And I don’t think he’ll have that belief against Moses.
“Sparring’s one thing, but he’ll struggle with [Itauma] a lot. If it goes past five or six rounds then it’s a completely different fight, but you’ve got to get past five or six rounds.”
Dubois has previously been stopped by Usyk on two separate occasions, suggesting he would encounter similar difficulty against another dynamic southpaw, this time in the form of a 21-year-old Itauma.
