Trevor Bryan and his team have vowed a miserable night in the ring for Daniel Dubois.
The secondary WBA heavyweight title fight on deck for this Saturday in Miami has been touted as a potential breakout night for London’s Dubois (17-1, 16KOs), who is heavily favored to hand the first defeat to Bryan (22-0, 15KOs), the outspoken New York-bred titleholder now based out of South Florida.
A throwback squad surrounds Bryan, including Hall of Fame promoter Don King and veteran trainer Stacy McKinley. Even the legendary Hall of Fame former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes—who will be in attendance this weekend at Casino Miami Jai Alai—was brought into camp to further guide the 32-year-old to an old-school way of thinking which his team believes will be key in upending the younger Dubois this weekend.
“Let me tell you one thing,” Messiah Eaddy, Bryan’s co-manager, vowed before proceeding with perhaps the best line of Wednesday’s press conference at Embassy Suites by Hilton Miami International Airport. “Trevor’s like an old bike with no seat. He’s gonna get in yo’ ass.”
Bryan did his part to keep pace with his manager, offering a few gems of his own during the final pre-fight presser.
“This fight is called ‘For Freedom and Peace,’” noted Bryan. “Before you have freedom and peace, you gotta have a war. That’s what we’re here to do. I’m not just somebody you gonna walk through, I’ll tell you right now.
“This will be a hard night for (Dubois). I’m Trevor Bryan, The Dream. On June 11, I’m gonna be this guy’s nightmare. “
Bryan upgraded his interim WBA title to the WBA “World” heavyweight strap following an eleventh-round knockout of Bermane Stiverne last January. The fight was his first in more than two years and still came together at the last minute when original opponent—and titleholder—Mahmoud Charr was unable to travel to the U.S. from Germany due to a travel visa issue which is part of an ongoing lawsuit with Don King Productions.
Nevertheless, Bryan moved forward with his career, at least in a sense. His first fight in 29 months was followed by another lengthy delay, returning to the ring this past January 29—one year to the day of his win over Stiverne— for his first title defense. It was once again to come versus Charr, with the fight falling through and this time for good. Bryan went on to face unbeaten Jonathan Guidry, whom he dropped in the closing seconds of an eventual split decision win that wasn’t all that close.
Immediately after came the order from the WBA for Bryan to enter negotiations for a fight with Dubois, who has won two straight by early knockout since a tenth-round knockout loss to Joe Joyce in November 2020. King won the rights to the fight after submitting a whopping $3,116,001 during a March 21 purse bid hearing. Dubois will earn a career-high $1,402,200.45 for the fight, while Bryan’s side is presumably due the remaining $1,713,800,55—by far his career-best payday should he get the full amount.
What the undefeated American seeks more so, is his long overdue respect.
“This is Trevor Bryan. See this face right here? Been here for a long time and will be here for a long time,” insisted the defending secondary titlist. “First of all I want to thank (Dubois) for coming all this way so he can get this ass whoopin’. I’m the WBA heavyweight champion and I’m here to stay.
“I’m gonna be opening up membership for them to come on this team after I get done with this ass whipping. They don’t know Trevor Bryan now, but they gonna know Trevor Bryan after June 11. Tell ‘em to come one. I may even waive the membership fee, so they can come for free. I’m gonna be this kid’s nightmare.”
The winner will become the WBA mandatory challenger to Oleksandr Usyk (19-0, 13KOs), the two-division champ and reigning WBA “Super”/IBF/WBO/IBO heavyweight tiltist who will defend versus England’s Anthony Joshua (24-2, 22KO) in a rematch targeted for mid-August.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox