DANIEL DUBOIS is on cloud nine after beating Anthony Joshua – but he had to weather some storms on his way to the top.
Five rounds of devastation from Dubois saw Joshua KO’d in the fifth round as ‘Dynamite’ defended his IBF world title for the first time.
He floored AJ four times in a display that marks him out as one of the best heavyweights in the world.
It has been an arduous journey to the top for Dubois, who started boxing at seven-years-old and was made to train by his father two years before that.
A prodigious amateur, Dubois was invited to train in the GB Boxing programme at 16-years-old, but rejected an opportunity to fight at the Olympics in favour of turning pro.
He made a good start to his professional career as he won his first 15 fights and several titles along the way, including the British Heavyweight belt against Nathan Gorman in 2019.
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A year later his came up against the first big test of his career in Joe Joyce, in front of an almost empty arena due to Covid restrictions.
Dubois fought well but succumbed to defeat after Joyce’s devastating jab left him with a fractured eye socket.
The swelling meant Dubois could not see out of his left eye and he was counted out after taking a knee in round ten.
He was ahead on two of the three judges’ cards when the fight was stopped, leading some to accuse Dubois of being a “quitter”.
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Round by round: How Dubois demolished Joshua
ANTHONY JOSHUA bravely picked himself up from the floor against Daniel Dubois – until he could no more.
AJ was floored four times in five rounds by Dubois before a thudding counter right closed the show in dramatic fashion.
Here, SunSport’s Jack Figg takes you round-by-round from the Wembley war.
ROUND 1
Dubois comes out sharp with the jab as Joshua bounces around struggling to deal with the piston-like left.
Huge right hand from Dubois has AJ staggering backwards with his hands far too low from the opening bell.
Joshua made to pay for the mistake as he circles out with his hands down and gets dropped by an overhand right.
ROUND 2
Joshua – saved only by the bell after being floored – struggles to get going as he takes shots to the face.
AJ is tottering and teetering around the ring with his guard again dangerously low and inviting pressure on.
Joshua is attempting to get back into the bout but his jab looks far too lazy – he doesn’t look to have recovered from the knockdown.
ROUND 3
AJ comes out with more intent but swings wildly with a right and connects with only thin air.
Dubois pours on the pressure and hammers Joshua into the corner scoring another knockdown.
The bell sounds but Dubois lands one or two afterwards – again AJ is saved by the clock as the writing looks on the wall.
ROUND 4
Disaster strikes again with Joshua floored once more – losing his balance as he touches the canvas.
The referee gives AJ another fighting chance and Dubois lands a low blow – giving the challenger some valuable respite.
Dubois slows down as four rounds come to a close with Joshua showing sensational resilience to hang in there.
ROUND 5
Joshua lands a huge right hand and Dubois legs buckle – an astonishing turnaround looks to be on the cards.
AJ pins Dubois onto the ropes and attempts one of his signature uppercuts but the countering right hand gets there first.
Joshua is caught flush on the chin, dropped once more and this time out for good. Dubois scores a stunning KO win.
Carl Frampton and David Haye were amongst the critics, with the latter saying he was “very unhappy with the way that he took a knee”.
While Frampton said: “I think that we all like Dubois, he’s a likeable guy.
‘Are you not entertained? I’m a gladiator’ – What Dubois and Joshua said after brutal fight
DANIEL DUBOIS annihilated Anthony Joshua’s dream of becoming a three-time world heavyweight champion, writes Wally Downes Jr.
Joshua was floored FOUR times as Dubois landed an astonishing fifth-round knockout in front of a record 96,000 Wembley crowd and millions of TV viewers to retain his IBF belt.
AJ, 34, never recovered after being downed in the first round of last night’s Battle of Britain showdown as a huge Dubois right-hand haymaker caught him flush on the chin.
Here’s what they said after the fight:
DANIEL DUBOIS
“Are you not entertained? I’m a gladiator, a warrior to the bitter end. This is the biggest win of my career. I couldn’t let this opportunity go and now I want to go to the top level of this game.
“I’ve been on a roller-coaster ride and this is my time. I’m not gonna stop until I reach my full potential.”
ANTHONY JOSHUA
“As p***ed off as I am, it is what it is.
“I had a sharp, fast opponent and there were a lot of mistakes from me. Credit to my opponent and his team.
“We rolled the dice and came up short. You know I’m p***ed but I’m going to keep cool and give respect to my opponent.”
FRANK WARREN (DUBOIS’ PROMOTER)
“It was a phenomenal fight, like Hagler v Hearns.
“A brilliant fight and everybody has seen a champion’s performance tonight.
“Daniel has shown his courage, his skills.
“AJ caught him with a shot towards the end and I was worried, but what a fabulous, fantastic fight.”
EDDIE HEARN (AJ’S PROMOTER)
“AJ shipped a huge right hand in the first round and was fighting on heart.
“He hurt Daniel at the end of the fourth and then again in the fifth, but got greedy and walked on to a right hand and that’s all she wrote.
“I’m sure Anthony will exercise the rematch clause.”
“But if it’s someone we didn’t like we’d say he’s a quitter. And I think he quit there.
“I have to be brutally honest, let’s call a spade a spade, he took a knee from a shot in the eye.
“His eye was a mess, his eye was closed but I get dragged out of the ring. I wouldn’t take a knee and get pulled out.”
Dubois responded to the setback by winning his next four bouts to set up a fight with world champion Oleksandr Usyk, who had twice defeated Joshua.
Again the Londoner fought well and thought he had scored a knockdown, but the referee judged his punch to be below the belt before Usyk showed his class and secured a knock-out win in the ninth round.
Dubois was downbeat after the loss but Usyk assured him of his potential and told him not to give up hope of becoming world champion.
The Ukrainian said to him in the ring: “It’s not bad. It’s boxing. It’s not ballet, it’s not dancing.
“Daniel, you’re young. You can. You can dream. Man, relax it’s boxing. It’s a tough sport brother.”
Again Dubois took heart from a defeat and bounced back with impressive wins over Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic, leading him to take over the vacant IBF world title belt and secure a showdown with Joshua.
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Still the underdog, he came out with a point to prove and rocked Joshua with a massive right hand in the opening round.
He dominated from that point on and landed more punches than AJ in each round, before landing the killer blow in the fifth to cement his place on top of the world.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
