Dubois takes on Lartey in London
One of boxing’s rising heavyweights, Daniel Dubois fights Saturday when he takes on Ghanaian puncher Richard Lartey for the vacant WBO Global strap in the main event from The SSE Arena, Wembley in London.
Dubois-Lartey will headline an afternoon of boxing on the streaming service ESPN+ beginning at 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT.
Dubois (10-0, 9 KOs) is becoming a regular on ESPN+ appearance as this is his fourth appearance on the streaming service. The 21-year-old London native who has seven knockout victories within the first two rounds. After going 3-0 in 2018, he opened up his 2019 slate March 8 against former world title challenger Razvan Cojanu. Dubois knocked out Cojanu in the second round with a nasty right right after several body shots.
Lartey (14-1, 11 KOs) has won eight consecutive fights since the lone loss of his career, a fifth-round TKO loss that saw him retire on his stool due to an injury. He has won four in a row via knockout but will be making a seismic step up in class versus Dubois. In his last bout, Dec. 24 of last year in Accra, Ghana, he stopped Morris Okola in the 10th round to pick up the WBO Africa heavyweight title. Lartey in an interview with iFL TV claims to use Dubois as a “stepping stone to Joshua” and felt that the United Kingdom kept his visa from him in order to travel for today’s fight.
Also on the card with the two heavyweights is Sunny Edwards (10-0, 3 KOs), who returns to defend his WBO European junior bantamweight title against Pedro Matos (7-1, 1 KO) in a 10-round contest.
Lerrone Richards (11-0, 3 KOs) and former British middleweight champion Tommy Langford (21-3, 6 KOs) face off in a scheduled 12-rounder for the vacant Commonwealth and WBO International super middleweight titles.
Super lightweight contender Jack Catterall (23-0, 12 KOs), coming off a strong win over Ohara Davies, will seek to continue that against Oscar Amador (10-17, 1 KO) in an eight-round match.
Super middleweight prospect Zak Chelli (6-0, 3 KOs) will take on Jimmy Smith (7-1, 0 KOs) in a 10-rounder.
Marquis Johns is a unknown humorist and avid boxing fan. His love for the sweet science goes back to when matches were 15 rounds and has been covering fights since closed-circuit pay-per-views. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth is not only a quote by Mike Tyson, it's also a pretty good reminder to keep your guard up.
