By Charles Brun: Unbeaten heavyweight contender Daniel Dubois (15-0, 14 KOs) blasted out the hapless replacement opponent Ricardo Snijders (18-2, 8 KOs) by a 2nd round knockout on Saturday night behind closed doors at the BT Sport Studios in London, England.
Dubois, 22, dropped Snijders three times in round 1, and then he put him another time in round 2. The fight was halted after Snijders rose to his feet. Referee Marcus McDonnell decided he’d seen enough and stopped the contest at 0:20 of round two.
Snijders seemed to be doing alright in the opening round until the 6’5″ Dubois began dropping him repeatedly. Once Snijders hit the deck for the first time in the round, it was a comedy after that, with Dubois knocking him down often. He would have continued to drop Snijders if not for the round ending.
Dubois landed a hard left to the body that put Snijders down in the 2nd round. It was an excellent body shot, and it’s not surprising that Snijders went down.
The stoppage was very questionable. Snijders made it back to his feet and looked to be in good shape, but the referee Marcus McDonnell looked at him closely and waved it off. It didn’t like the stoppage.
In the first round, you can argue that only the first knockdown should have counted. The other two knockdowns looked like Dubois shoved Snijders and then hit him in the back of the head. Neither of those looked like knockdowns to me, but the referee looked he was struggling in making the right calls. It looked like McDonnell had a stormy night at the office.
Snijders was utterly overmatched, and he was going to lose anyway even if McDonnell did make the right calls.
“I need to step up now,” said Dubois after the fight. “Yeah, I saw that he was pulling back from the head [shots], so I thought, ‘The body doesn’t move, so go for there.’ The target was there, so I just took it, and I came away with the victory and a good stoppage.
“It was just a little warm-up. I’m just getting started,” Dubois continued when asked if he’s getting the cobwebs off from a long layoff from the lockdown in boxing. “There are plenty more to come.
“He’s got to say something like that,” said Dubois when told that Joe Joyce said he would have knocked out Snijders in the first round. “I knew it was a foregone conclusion I was going to win. It was just about getting the ball rolling again, and getting in there and getting under the bright lights after all the training camp and getting the victory. If I have Joe next, I’ll be more than ready for him.
“Whenever they bring him [Joe Joyce] up, I’ll be 100% sure that it’ll be a great fight that I’ll win, and I’m excited about that. It’s always good to see the big names at ringside, even though there’s no crowd there like I would have liked. It was good to see the top guys in the business, David Haye included.
“I didn’t even want to send a message to Joe. This is between him and me. It’s personnel,” Dubois continued. “We’ll get it on when we get it on, and we’ll know what’s up. This was about me getting back under the lights and doing what I do best,” said Dubois.
Daniel is now ready to take on Joe Joyce in a mouthwatering fight in October. That’s the match that all boxing has been waiting for, and fingers crossed, it happens without something getting in the way.
Positives:
- Dubois’ jab and body punching looked great. He was snapping Snijders’ head back each time he hit with his power-jab.
- The body punching from Dubois was out of this world, and that’s what won him the fight. Once Dubois began hitting Snijders with shots to the body, it was the beginning of the end.
Negatives:
- Daniel’s hand speed left a lot to be desired. He looked incredibly slow, and not much faster than his next opponent Joe Joyce’s hand speed. The lack of speed didn’t hurt Dubois tonight, but if he were in there with a good heavyweight, he would have had significant issues.
- The shoving that Dubois did after he had Snijders hurt in the first round didn’t look right. He was shoving the Danish fighter around, and he was given credit for two knockdowns that should have been waived off.
- Dubois moved around the ring like a slow turtle and looked hittable.
Now with the mismatch against Snijders out of the way, Dubois will face the 2016 Olympic super heavyweight silver medalist Joe Joyce on October 24 at the O2 Arena in London. That’s the fight that boxing fans have been waiting for, and it’ll tell us whether Dubois is the real deal. We already know that the 34-year-old Joyce is a solid heavyweight, but we don’t know if Dubois has the goods to hang with the top 10 heavyweights.
Sunny Edwards decisions Thomas Essomba
Undefeated super flyweight Sunny Edwards (15-0, 4 KOs) beat journeyman Thomas Essomba (10-6, 4 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision. The scores were 115-112, 117-112, and 117-111.
Boxing News 24 had it 115-112 for Edwards. He did an excellent job of out-boxing the limited Essomba, but he was far from impressive. Edwards’ lack of power made the fight more difficult than it should have been.
Sam Maxwell decisions Joe Hughes
In a close fight, WBO European light-welterweight champion Sam Maxwell (14-0, 11 KOs) pounded out a more challenging than expected 10 round unanimous decision over the always tough Joe Hughes (17-6-1, 7 KOs). The judges had it 98-92, 97-94, and 97-94. Boxing News 24 gave it to Maxwell by the score 97-94. If Maxwell could punch, his job would have been a lot easier tonight.