Daniel Dubois has done a superb job of getting himself to the top of the heavyweight tree in recent fights.
That was until he came up against fellow Brit Joe Joyce, who inflicted such damage on Dubois’ eye that he decided to take a knee and opt to fight another day. That drew plenty of criticism and accusations of quitting, which Dubois always denied.
A tough fight and a knee injury saw him put down more than once by Kevin Lerena, although he went on to get a knockout win. He then lost to Oleksandr Usyk in a first world title challenge after scoring a controversial knockdown that was ruled a low-blow.
His last two outings however have been impressive wins. The latest was against talented Croatian Fillip Hrgovic and ended in a stoppage for Dubois due to cuts. Before that he managed to get rid of the 300lbs plus Brooklyn boxer Jarrell Miller in the last seconds of their 10-round fight in Saudi Arabia.
Miller is soon to face Andy Ruiz Jr, and ahead of that has been speaking to BoxNation to claim he only lost to Dubois because he ran out of energy.
“I didn’t have enough time to prepare, there were a lot of outside distractions. I ran out of frigging gas. I had that a**hole out of there and I feel like I got drugged, like somebody took all the life out of me in the fifth and sixth rounds.
I don’t want to blame nobody I gotta take it on the chin but I never get tired in fights. I always throw punches, I always come forward. It sucks, Dubois don’t hit that hard.
He didn’t hurt me, I hurt myself. He didn’t beat me, I beat myself. People saying I took my foot off the gas, and that’s what happened. So this time we’re gonna have enough gas to go all night.”
After beating Hrgovic, Dubois was elevated to IBF champion and will defend that title against Anthony Joshua at Wembley on September 21.
