By Brad Slotnick: Daniel Dubois has been said to have suffered a fractured left orbital bone and nerve damage from his 10th round knockout loss to underdog Joe Joyce last Saturday night.
Dubois will be seeing a specialist tomorrow to have his injured eye examined, and he’ll decide whether to have surgery. If Dubois needs surgery, he could be out of the ring for a while.
Former IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook suffered a similar injury in his fights against Gennadiy Golovkin and Errol Spence Jr in 2016 and 2017.
Brook was out of the ring for over six months recovering from the surgery and slowly coming back. Kell’s career was never the same after suffering the injuries. We’ll have to see if Dubois can come back from his eye injury to be the fighter he’d previously been.
Can Dubois come back?
It will be interesting to see if Dubois can return to the form that he previously had when or if his eye heals. If the reports are true about Dubois’s left eye suffering nerve damage, is that something that he can come back from?
The unfortunate thing is, Dubois hadn’t proved himself yet against world-class opposition in his previous 15 fights before meeting up with Joyce last Saturday.
The 6’6″, 240+ lb Dubois was a big question mark going into the fight, as the opposition he’d been fed during his carer domestic level heavyweights with marginal talent and a cut below the top level.
The final jab that Joyce landed in the tenth round proved to be too much for Dubois, and he retreated and took a knee, resulting in the contest being stopped.
Mike Coppinger reports the injuries to the 23-year-old heavyweight Dubois (15-1, 14 KOs), who bowed out of the fight in taking a knee in the 10th after getting hit with a jab from Joyce.
In a delayed reaction, Dubois turned backed away moments after being hit and then took a knee. Some boxing fans feel that Dubois went down in a delayed reaction indicated that he mentally quit.
Now, with the news of Dubois suffering a fractured left orbital bone, it makes sense what Dubois did in choosing to take a knee.
The 2016 Olympic super heavyweight silver medalist Joyce (12-0, 11 KOs) said after the fight that Dubois definitely quit and that he’d broken his year by wearing him down with his jabs until he couldn’t take any more in their fight at the Church House in London, England.
Joyce: I proved my doubters wrong
“I proved all my doubters wrong, and I’m ready to rumble on and go for the world title,” said Joyce. “Granite, stone, steel, I don’t know,” Joyce said when asked what his chin is made of.
“Not to break his orbital socket [the gameplan], but to win the fight. My jab was landing well. I kept at him, took his jab away, and stayed away from his dangerous shots. And I followed the game plan, and it worked for me.
“I didn’t fancy mixing it close with him because what I was doing was working, so I kept at it. It seemed to be a really close fight, but I was happy when he put his knee down, and I stopped Daniel Dubois.
“I proved all you haters wrong, and hopefully, make a lot of people money tonight. Hopefully, the Warrens can sort out that title with the WBO should [Anthony] Joshua vacate it.
“I can’t wait to be a world champion, and hopefully unite the belt and fight these top-class heavyweights. There’s a small circle of top-class heavyweights, and I believe I belong with them, so I’m ready to mix it with them,” said Joyce.
If Joyce faces Oleksandr Usyk for the vacant WBO heavyweight title in early 2021, you’d have to make him the favorite. Usyk has looked mediocre in his two fights since moving up to heavyweight against Dereck Chisora and Chazz Witherspoon.
Although Dubois landed the bigger and more powerful shots in the fight, Joyce hit him repeatedly with ramrod jabs that bloodied his nose and busted up his left eye.
Dubois quit, and I broke his heart, says Joyce
“It’s good. He’s a strong young guy,” Joyce said when asked what Dubois’ power was like. My [left] ear is still ringing a little bit. He hit me in the ear, and I’ve got a few lumps and bumps. I think I could have done another five rounds.
“He definitely quit, but he saved his eye; his eye was busted up, and I hear he broke a socket, and I broke his heart,” said Joyce when asked if Dubois quit. “I mean, he’s young, he can come again, and the ‘Juggernaut’ is going to keep marching forward.
With the force that the 6’6”, 258-lb Joye was putting behind his jabs, he was essentially hitting Dubois with power shots throughout the fight.
Joyce’s jabs may not have been as powerful as Dubois’s punches, but they were hard enough to damage his face.
Dubois didn’t want to take any more punishment to his eye, which is why he opted out of the fight in the tenth. You can make a strong argument that Dubois mentally quit in the ninth round, as that’s when his punch output dropped off dramatically.
Ideally, Dubois’ trainer should have stopped the fight between rounds before the tenth, as it would have saved Daniel from taking additional punishment.
His left eye was already completely closed at that point in the fight, and there was very little chance that he could go the final three rounds without the ringside doctor stopping it.
At least if Dubois’ corner had stopped the fight, boxing fans wouldn’t be able to call Daniel a “quitter,” which is what many of them have been saying since last night.
Moving forward, Dubois should let his corner know that they should pull him out of fights if it appears that he’s got a serious injury.
Joyce ready to fight Oleksandr Usyk in 2021 for the WBO belt
“Usyk, I’m coming for Usyk,” said Joyce when asked what message he has for #1 WBO Oleksandr Usyk. “Yeah, it would be amazing to fight a rematch with Usyk for the heavyweight world title.
“That’s what I’m in boxing for, and once I win that, there’s plenty of big fights out there. So I’m going to keep improving in the gym and stay ready for the next one.
“I believe so, yeah,” Joyce said when asked if he’ll become a world champion in 2021. I’ll add to my collection of belts. I’ll have to get some storage space sorted out for that.
“I believe it was quite close. I have to watch it back,” Joyce said when asked about his reaction to one of the judges having Dubois up by eight rounds going into the tenth round.
“When I’m in there, I can’t really gauge what’s going on. I felt that my jab was landing successfully, but I’ll have to go back and watch how I actually did. That’s the exciting bit for me.
“The job is done. I won the belts and watch it back and enjoy the celebrations. Yeah, definitely [Dubois will watch it at home].
“I can definitely imagine him saying some stuff when I was in the fight, but I just felt like I had to keep it safe because Daniel has got the power. I was staying away from it, and it was working,” said Joyce.
Joyce has an excellent chance of meeting up with Usyk in early 2021 with the WBO title, as long as Joshua vacates the belt.
We’ll find out in a hurry whether WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua will vacate his title or not. If he chooses to keep it, he’ll need to face his WBO mandatory Usyk (17-0, 13 KOs) in the first half of 2021.
Joshua is signed for two fights against WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in 2021. So for AJ to fight Fury twice, he would need a fast turnaround after his fight with Usyk in early 2021.
It would be difficult for Joshua to come back quickly from a fight against Usyk to take on Fury next summer. Facing Usyk would be risky for Joshua, as he could lose to him, and that would wreck his plans to face Fury twice.