Daniel Dubois (15-1, 14 KOs) gave it a good go, but as the saying goes, ‘If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen,‘ and we saw that plain as day with the 23-year-old phenom quitting on a knee in the 10th round against the warhorse Joe ‘The Juggernaut’ Joyce (12-0, 11 KOs) on Saturday night in London, England.
You could see that there was going to be problems for Dubois early when his nose was bloodied by a hard jab from Joyce in the first round. After that, Dubois looked like Rudolph with his red nose.
It was initially a target for Joyce’s jabs until Daniel’s left eye began closing by the sixth. Once that happened, Joyce went after the eye and succeeded in closing it after three rounds by the ninth.
After taking a knee, Dubois did get back to his feet, but the referee halted anyway because he mistimed the count. In other words, Dubois got up too slowly and failed to beat the count.
Dubois’ left eye was completely closed, and he couldn’t take it anymore by the 10th, so he quit.
Dubois was ahead by eight rounds on one judge’s scorecard
The Queensbury promoted Dubois has reportedly been taken to a hospital to have his eye checked out.
Interestingly, one judge had Dubois ahead by eight rounds at the time of the stoppage in the 10th. I don’t know about you, but that’s unbelievable.
That judge had only given Joyce one round in the fight up until the moment that Dubois quit his knees. As you can tell, Joyce was really up against it in this fight being the B-side of the promotion. He clearly needed a knockout to get the win, and luckily for him, he did.
The way Dubois quit on a knee in the 10th was virtually identical to what we saw with Kell Brook quitting on a knee from an eye injury in his fight against Errol Spence Jr in 2017. It was the same situation.
Dubois had a badly swollen left eye that he was clearly concerned about, and when he got hit hard with a jab from Joyce, he went down like he’d been poleaxed. Whatever Dubois felt at the moment that he got hit by Joyce, it was enough for him to, ‘Forget this, I don’t want anymore.’
Dubois, 23, was supposed to win this fight with flying colors tonight, but Joyce showed how you can wear a fighter down by repeatedly hitting them with jabs. It’s like the process of water wearing down a rock over time.
Joyce’s shots may not have been as hard as the powerful punches that Dubois was landing, but he kept at it round after round, repeatedly hitting Dubois with his power jabs until finally, his left eye shut tight, causing him to quit.
With the win, Joyce captures the vacant EBU heavyweight title. But more important than that, Joyce takes over as the new #2 WBO contender, and he’s now in the position to face #1 WBO Oleksandr Usyk for the title once Anthony Jacobs vacates the belt, as many expect him to do soon.
Overall, Dubois couldn’t keep up with the pace, the power jab, and the talent of Joyce tonight. Dubois looked like he’d trained to fight hard for six rounds, and once the contest reached the midpoint in the contest, he was fighting on fumes.
There wasn’t enough gas left in Dubois’ fuel tank for him to keep battling ‘The Juggernaut’ with the pace that he was fighting at. It didn’t help that Joyce continually hit Dubois with jabs that snapped his head back repeatedly each round.
Dubois’ promoter Frank Waren hasn’t said what his plans are for him. He can push for the rematch, but that wouldn’t be advisable.
If Joyce forces Dubois to quit a second time, his career could be in the same boat as David Price, who made the mistake of fighting Tony Thompson twice in a row and losing both fights early in his career.
Joyce has bigger fish to fry potentially in a fight against Usyk for the vacant WBO title if or when Anthony Joshua vacates is WBO strap.
