Daniel Dubois has once again come under fire for, in the eyes of some onlookers, ‘quitting’ in his most recent fight with Oleksander Usyk.
This is an accusation that has followed Dubois around ever since his fight with Joe Joyce back in November 2020. After taking sustained damage to his eyes from Joyce’s jabs, Dubois took a knee and allowed himself to be counted out.
Then in his first fight with Usyk, it seemed as though he had his heart broken rather than having taken too much physical damage after he was put down from a stiff jab by Usyk in the ninth round.
In the rematch for the undisputed titles at Wembley this past weekend, Dubois never really got going in the fight. He was picked off by Usyk’s sharp punches and fluid footwork and was put down twice in round five.
The second time, he failed to beat the count but then soon got back up and walked back to his corner on what looked like steady feet, which is what led some to call him a quitter. One of those was Derek Chisora.
“He quit. He quit again. Yeah, man, he quit. I don’t understand. They were supposed to train different. They did not. It was set for him to win it.”
Speaking to Seconds Out, ‘DDD’s promoter Frank Warren revealed conversations he had had with Dubois and his team and suggested they had an offer for Chisora if that’s what he believes.
“Derek said Daniel is a quitter. I didn’t like the way he kept on saying it. The vibe I got back when I spoke to Don [Charles, Dubois’s coach] yesterday was, well, if he thinks he’s a quitter, he can fight him. Fight him, it’s a great fight isn’t it? What a good fight it would be between the two them.”
Dubois has bounced back from these criticisms before and put together three impressive KO wins in 10 months when he beat Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic and Anthony Joshua, and must now repeat that if he is to get back to the top level.
