Martin Bakole has no doubt as to who he thinks will get their hand raised between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois.
The heavyweight titans are set to square off on September 21 at Wembley Stadium for the IBF heavyweight title.
Dubois was recently upgraded from ‘interim’ to full world champion after Oleksandr Usyk vacated the belt to fulfil his rematch clause with Tyson Fury.
AJ opens up as a 1/5 favourite to beat Dubois with talkSPORT Bet.
And Bakole – who has sparred both men – is in agreement with the oddsmakers.
“Joshua is too good for Dubois and more experienced. He has a technique and a big heart,” he told talkSPORT.com.
Daniel doesn’t have a big heart so as soon as he starts landing the big beautiful punches, he will give up.
“He doesn’t have a big heart. I think Joshua for the experience but anything can happen.
“Daniel Dubois can land beautiful punches he surprised everyone against Hrgovic but I don’t Joshua will give up and he will try his best.
“So for experience, for boxing style, for his brain, I think he is a little bit higher than Dubois.”
The Congolese heavyweight claims to have stopped Dubois twice in sparring and given Joshua a ‘hard time’ when they shared the ring together.
“Ask anyone about me. Go ask Daniel Dubois about me, ask Joshua about me, ask Usyk about me, ask Tyson Fury about me, they will keep quiet. Nobody will say they gave me a hard time,” he added.
“I gave them all a hard time. I stopped Daniel Dubois twice, stopped Joe Joyce and Joshua oh, that was a big one, he was hurt that day.”
Bakole is currently ranked by all four major sanctioning bodies including a No.1 rating with the WBA.
Since losing for the first and only time in his professional career against Michael Hunter in October 2018, the 31-year-old has strung together a nine-fight winning streak and has now been handed the biggest opportunity of his career.
On August 3 in Los Angeles, Bakole will face Jared Anderson in Riyadh Season’s first overseas event, headlined by Israil Madrimov vs Terence Crawford.
Anderson is widely considered to be one of boxing’s most exciting heavyweight prospects while Fury has tipped him to become the next big thing.
If Bakole can derail the hype train then it will be a massive statement that would open doors to some colossal fights.