Daniel Dubois vs. Bogdan Dinu WBA Heavyweight Title Bout of Opportunity
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
With so many deserving fighters worthy of a version of any world title shot in the heavyweight division, how is it two fighters best known for their three recent combined losses are rewarded with a heavyweight world title shot instead?
Call it a boxing “crime of opportunity” for the benefactors, Daniel Dubois and Bogdan Dinu, who will be fighting next month for the World Boxing Association Interim World Heavyweight title, and a shot at 20-0 regular champion Trevor Bryan, a shelfed Don King fighter (if you can believe it, yes Don King still has a fighter). This past weekend, previously undefeated Christopher Lovejoy blasted Don King for claiming he had a contract with Lovejoy, before Lovejoy fought and lost to WBA Heavyweight champion is recent Manuel Charr. Precisely where Charr fits into this WBA heavyweight titular mix now also remains to be determined, now that he has fought again after four years of inactivity. Charr also claimed his second round knockout of Lovejoy was a WBA World Heavyweight title bout of sorts (though the Boxrec did not recognize it as such, some news media outlets did).
Dubois sustained a broken left eye socket in his tenth round knockout loss for the British and European titles to Olympian Joe Joyce this past December 2020. Rumored to have sustained permanent optical damage, Dubois has somehow been rewarded with this bout of opportunity by the World Boxing Association. In this unique scenario, boxing fans are being given an education of what happens with undesirable names. Nobody is looking for Daniel Dubois, Manuel Charr, or Bogdan Dinu at this point. Kubrat Pulev, Jarrell Miller, and Joy Joyce, names of the world class fighters who have beaten Dubois and Dinu, were never on the table. The likely reason is because for economics reasons, career reasons, or whatever else, nobody wants the WBA heavyweight interim fight. The winner would have to wait out time for a chance to fight the Don King fighter, which is tantamount to waiting for an opportunity to fight aging Don King fighter Guillermo Jones, an ex-world champion. The point is Don King fighters (as a fighter I formerly advised, cruiserweight Carl Davis, will tell you) are like an old dusty coffeepot in the back of your kitchen cupboard. Don King no longer has the move or the groove to move fighters like he once had. Don King remains one of professional boxing’s most colorful promoters and figures, he was just passed in the promotional game a long time ago. One would like to see him return with successful promotions, and if it happened, more power to him.
If former British champion “Dynamite” Dubois, 15-1 with 14 knockouts, Greenwich, London, United Kingdom, and Dinu, 20-2 with 16 knockouts, Bucharest, Romania, do ultimately meet in London on June 5, 2021, it would mean Dubois received a medical clear in Great Britain and has made a full medical recovery. No medical report has yet been presented as to what damage Joyce sustained optically in the Joyce bout. This is why questions remain about Dubois being allowed to fight again. In this reporter’s view, Dubois probably should not be allowed to fight again, given the dislocated eye socket sustained in his last bout, and optical nerve damage which could have accompanied it. Without facts, the Dubois medical report remains unknown.
This reporter has always felt Dubois is a world class fighter, and wishes him well in his comeback attempt, but wonders if the comeback attempt is too soon after sustaining such an injury. The need to protect his left eye due to the broken orbital bone and nerve damage previously incurred cold make Dubois versus Dinu a more defensive bout, and a much closer bout than it normally would have been had not the injury been sustained. The mutiplicity of world title variations had led to confusion. Interim titles, super titles, silver title, and gold titles and among the many categories. The physical and emotional health and well-being of the fighter should take priority over everything else. As it stands during the pandemic, any boxing is ultimately better than no boxing, as the sport needs continuance to maintain public interest, feasibility, and the power of the box office draw, which cannot be maintained by itself by fighting Canelo every two or three months. The heavyweight division has been, is, and will always being the nexus of public interest in boxing.
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