Former two-weight world champion provides his verdict on Daniel Dubois vs. Joseph Parker showdown

Lawrence Okolie believes the speed of Joseph Parker will be a huge factor when he finally steps into the ring with Daniel Dubois. 

Dubois will be looking to defend his IBF heavyweight title for a second time as he aims to extend an impressive run against a fighter also enjoying a good spell of form. 

Last year, Dubois and Parker enjoyed marquee wins as they both boosted their ranking by disposing of other highly rated opponents. 

Parker built on an excellent win against Deontay Wilder by climbing off the floor twice to defeat Zhilei Zhang. 

For Dubois, he stopped Filip Hrgovic and followed that up in a devastating manner when he stopped Anthony Joshua inside a packed Wembley Stadium. 

Now the two are fighting and there can only be one winner when the fight gets underway on a stacked card in Saudi Arabia. 

Lawrence Okolie, a fighter who wants to get to the top of the division one day, is the latest fighter to have his say on how things might play out. 

A world champion at both cruiserweight and bridgerweight, Okolie is hopeful he can one day compete for a heavyweight title, and he is back in action in April when he faces Richard Riakporhe. 

That contest is taking up the bulk of his attention, but he has given his thoughts on what could happen this weekend. 

"It's tough because it depends on if Parker can keep his speed up like he has been in his previous fights,” said Parker when speaking to The Ring. 

"If he can't then Dubois will get to him quite quickly, Dan will get to him in the first five or six rounds, but if Parker hasn't lost the speed, he has a good chance of negating what Dan does well and out-pointing him down the stretch."