Why is Daniel Dubois not fighting Joseph Parker tonight?

Daniel Dubois will not fight Joseph Parker as originally scheduled in Riyadh tonight as Martin Bakole steps up instead. The reigning IBF heavyweight champion was set to make the second (voluntary) defence of his belt at the Kingdom Arena in Saudi Arabia against a resurgent opponent as the chief support act to the undisputed light-heavyweight title rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol in what many were labelling as the best fight card in boxing history.

It was set to be Dubois’ first outing since dominating and stopping fellow Briton Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium in September, having previously won IBF interim honours with a victory over Filip Hrgovic on the inaugural Queensberry vs Matchroom 5v5 card last summer and then been upgraded to full champion status without stepping back into the ring after the belt was relinquished by then undisputed king Oleksandr Usyk in advance of a contracted rematch with Tyson Fury that left him unable to fulfil his mandatory obligations.

However, the build-up to Saturday night’s blockbuster event has been fraught with drama, with Dubois withdrawn from his contest after the same had also happened to Floyd Schofield, who was supposed to be challenging fellow unbeaten American Shakur Stevenson for his WBC lightweight world title.

Bakole and Doncaster’s Josh Padley have each received extremely late call-ups instead to keep the show on the road as planned, with many still expecting the co-main event to be every bit as explosive with enthusiasm and anticipation seemingly not dimmed.

Dubois arrived in Saudi Arabia as planned this week and took part in workouts in front of the media at The Boulevard Riyadh on Wednesday. However, reports first emerged ahead of the final press conference on Thursday that the Parker fight was potentially in doubt with Dubois suffering from an unspecified illness, with Lawrence Okolie, David Adeleye and Mourad Aliev said to be among the replacements being considered initially.

‘Dynamite’ was evaluated by a doctor and withdrawn from the bout, leaving him “gutted” as promoter Frank Warren later confirmed that he was suffering from a viral infection. His place was quickly taken by Bakole, whose promoter and Boxxer chief Ben Shalom was actively agreeing the deal for his fighter to step in for Dubois while the final Beterbiev vs Bivol 2 press conference was taking place.

It remains to be seen at this stage if the fight between Dubois and former WBO heavyweight champion Parker will still happen further down the line. Obviously first and foremost much will depend on the New Zealander, a close friend and training partner of Tyson Fury, taking care of business on Saturday night, which is no sure bet against the powerful and difficult Bakole despite the latter taking the fight on such short notice.

Parker has been excellent since suffering the last of his three professional losses in an all-out war with Joe Joyce in Manchester in September 2022, outpointing both Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang to become WBO interim champion after lower-key victories over Jack Massey, Faiga Opelu and Simon Kean.

But he will still be in for a tough challenge against Congolese contender Bakole, whom many believe is fully capable of going on to become a world champion himself. Rather than fighting for the IBF title as planned, Parker will now be defending his WBO interim belt won against Zhang last March, with the WBO confirming that the winner will become their mandatory challenger to take on full champion Usyk.

Usyk arrived in Riyadh on Friday and will be at ringside on Saturday night, declining to give a prediction for Parker vs Bakole but stating to DAZN that he wants to fight Dubois next regardless in another huge undisputed clash. The two men have plenty of history already of course, with Usyk twice dropping and stopping then WBA mandatory challenger Dubois in the ninth round of their showdown in Wroclaw, Poland back in August 2023 to successfully retain his WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO and The Ring heavyweight titles to follow his back-to-back wins over Joshua and ahead of the two clashes with Fury.

That victory certainly was not without controversy however, with Usyk floored in round five by a punch that was controversially ruled as a low blow, giving him nearly four minutes to recover and then go on to win to leave Dubois and his camp furious. An appeal by Warren to the WBA for the fight to be ruled as a no contest and for an immediate rematch to be ordered was subsequently rejected.

Dubois is desperate to avenge what he still sees as a burning injustice and “robbery” against Usyk, confronting his fellow champion in the ring in the aftermath of his second points win over Fury before Christmas and demanding a rematch. There is of course the possibility of Bakole going on to face Dubois in future if he can spring a shock by upsetting Parker in Riyadh on Saturday night.

Bakole may not yet be a global household name due to a lack of huge fights, but he is very highly-rated in boxing circles and highly-ranked and will be eager to take this unexpected chance, although it remains to be seen if his conditioning will prevent that from happening with a lack of training time and whirlwind 48 hours that has seen him fly from the Democratic Republic of Congo out to Saudi at such late notice, not arriving in time for Friday’s weigh-in.