As far as former world champion Tony Bellew is concerned, Daniel Dubois will remain a powerhouse at the pinnacle of the heavyweight division unless he is forced to step into the ring with one particular rising contender whose unique stylistic attributes could cause him serious professional problems.
The assessment follows Dubois’s emphatic performance last weekend, where the 29-year-old successfully retained his WBO title by scoring a devastating second-round finish over Fabio Wardley. That explosive victory came after Dubois floored his challenger in the opening 17 seconds of their eagerly anticipated rematch, instantly setting a ferocious pace that Wardley ultimately could not recover from.
Prior to that second-round demolition, Dubois had already proven his toughness and resilience in their first encounter, where he survived two separate knockdowns before storming back to secure an 11th-round stoppage. That gritty triumph solidified his status as a two-time world champion and demonstrated a growing maturity in his championship credentials.
Throughout his professional career, Dubois’s only setbacks have come against elite competition in the form of Joe Joyce and Oleksandr Usyk. His first career defeat came in 2020 when Joyce stopped him in the 10th round of a punishing domestic showdown, a loss that many boxing analysts and observers attributed primarily to a lack of elite-level experience at the time. Meanwhile, pound-for-pound star Oleksandr Usyk simply outclassed the British puncher, handing him respective ninth and fifth-round stoppages during their high-stakes encounters in 2023 and 2025.
However, at this crucial stage in his career, Bellew firmly believes that Dubois has evolved to the point where he possesses the beating of most top-level heavyweights currently operating on the global stage. This group of potential victims, according to the former cruiserweight and heavyweight contender, includes reigning WBC champion Agit Kabayel. Yet, despite his confidence in Dubois’s ability to handle the division’s established elite, Bellew warns that the champion would likely fall short if he were ever matched against Moses Itauma.
Speaking at length on Fight Your Corner, Bellew highlighted why a matchup with Kabayel would ultimately favor Dubois, drawing a direct comparison to the kind of vulnerabilities the German-based champion has previously shown. Bellew pointed out that Dubois could take immense tactical and psychological confidence from the way Kabayel was hurt and dropped during his sixth-round victory over Zhilei Zhang last year, noting that Dubois possesses the relentless, forward-moving pressure required to exploit such a weakness.
Elaborating on Dubois’s distinct psychological approach inside the squared circle, Bellew explained that the champion operates with a rare and singular focus that makes him uniquely dangerous against orthodox pressure fighters or men who can be hurt.
“Daniel’s got such tunnel vision — he’s so one-track minded. You show Daniel a video of Agit Kabayel on the floor — going down, being hurt — and it’s done. Dubois will just keep going,” Bellew said during his appearance on Fight Your Corner, emphasizing the champion’s relentless work ethic and terminator-like mindset.
However, Bellew drew a sharp distinction between fighters like Kabayel and the nearly impenetrable aura surrounding unified great Oleksandr Usyk, whose defensive mastery and technical brilliance have rendered him an entirely different proposition for anyone in the weight class.
“With the likes of Usyk, you’ve never seen that boy on the floor. You can’t penetrate that boy,” Bellew added, illustrating the immense difficulty of cracking the Ukrainian’s defensive shell.
It is precisely this elusive, highly technical southpaw style that brings Bellew back to his primary concern for Dubois’s long-term dominance. Much like Usyk, Moses Itauma represents a generation of extraordinarily skillful southpaws who possess the technical depth and tactical discipline to potentially rule the heavyweight division for years to come.
Itauma’s path, of course, is not without its own obstacles and developmental tests, as evidenced by his recent ninth-round stoppage defeat to Filip Hrgovic. That tough learning experience proved that even the most touted prospects must navigate the treacherous waters of the heavyweight division, where a single elite-level test can alter the trajectory of a career.
Nevertheless, for Bellew, the underlying stylistic matchup between Dubois and a talent like Itauma remains the most fascinating and dangerous puzzle in modern boxing. While Dubois continues to carve through the heavyweight landscape with devastating power and single-minded determination, the shadow of a stylistic kryptonite like Itauma lingers as the ultimate test of whether the WBO champion can truly clean out the entire division and remain undisputed ruler of the heavyweight realm.
