Now no one doubts Daniel Dubois anymore. The 27-year-old Dubois was very convincing and knocked out his compatriot Anthony Joshua in the heavyweight boxing title fight in London.
Daniel Dubois was a bit of a question before the fight as he had not had to dethrone a champion for his IBF belt. He took over as IBF champion at the end of June when the undisputed heavyweight champion, Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk, relinquished the title.
Dubois therefore entered the ring with something to prove at Wembley late on Saturday night. Three-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua could not match the determination shown by Dubois.
The crowd of 96,000, the largest for a British boxing match since the Second World War, witnessed a one-sided fight.
Dubois floored Joshua in the first and third rounds before ending the fight with a knockout 59 seconds into the fifth round. Joshua did not have time to react to Dubois’ counterattack and fell headlong into the ring.
Caption Daniel Dubois’ heavy artillery sent Anthony Joshua down.
Bild: Magazine photo
Daniel Dubois
Dubois screamed ”Are you not entertained?” (in Swedish: “Aren’t you entertained?”) after his victory just like Russell Crowe did in his classic scene as Maximus in the movie Gladiator.
He continued on the same theme in his winning interview.
– I am a gladiator. I am a warrior until the bitter end. It’s my time now. This is my restoration, says Dubois.
Thanks to the convincing victory, he now sits with the trump card in the negotiations over who will get to face the winner of the fight between Usyk, who holds three heavyweight belts, and Tyson Fury. Usyk and Fury meet on December 21.
– I don’t intend to stop until I reach my full potential, says Dubois.
Return meeting between Dubois and Usyk?
The question marks are many around Anthony Joshua after he was outclassed at Wembley. The loss was already his fourth in five years. The defeat against Dubois was by far the heaviest. He was saved by the bell in the first and third rounds and Dubois managed to outwit his defense time and time again.
– My opponent was fast and sharp. But I made a lot of mistakes, says Joshua.
The loss meant that the 34-year-old Joshua missed his chance to write himself into the boxing history books. If victorious, he would have become the fourth boxer to become world heavyweight champion three times. Only Muhammad Ali, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis have managed that feat.
Anthony Joshua has been an incredibly popular boxer for over a decade, selling out arenas in the UK on a regular basis. Man his future as a serious contender on the heavyweight scene may well be over.
Dubois, who is seven years younger, is now the big name of the future. He lost last year to Usyk, but a rematch feels likely if the Ukrainian defeats Fury in December.
Source: AP
