Terence Crawford was among the boxing luminaries who were ringside Saturday night watching Daniel Dubois destroy Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium in London in front of a record crowd of 96,000.
Dubois knocked down Joshua four times to score a fifth-round knockout win and defended his IBF heavyweight title for the first time.
Dubois dropped Joshua in Rounds 1, 3, 4 and 5, and even survived a brief scare courtesy of a desperation onslaught from Joshua moments before he connected with his highlight-reel KO.
“No, not at all [was it a shock],” Crawford told the media while leaving the arena. “The better man was going to win, and Dubois was the better man. He capitalized on Joshua’s faults and won the fight. … It was a great fight. I think Joshua got overconfident [right before the fight ended]. He hurt him with a shot and went for the kill, but he forgot about his defense and forgot the fundamentals.
“Dubois came to fight, and you can see it in his eyes. He wasn’t going to leave the ring without that victory.”
Joshua, who will turn 35 years old next month, is now 6-4 in his 10 fights over the past five years, having lost to Oleksandr Usyk (twice), Andy Ruiz Jr. and, now, Dubois. But Joshua shut down any potential retirement talks immediately after the fight.
Crawford has his concerns, however, about whether the two-time heavyweight champion can revive his career once more.
“Uh, I don’t know [if Joshua can come back from this],” said Crawford. “Joshua has been in a lot of wars. He fought a lot of great fighters. I think he can, but it’s going to be tough because he has a lot of wear and tear on his body.”
The four-division champion Crawford is coming off a unanimous decision win against Israil Madrimov last month to capture the WBA junior middleweight title.
Crawford doesn’t have his next fight date lined up yet, but he has been adamant about moving up to 168 pounds for a clash against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
“Hopefully, we can get that fight,” said Crawford. “If not, we move on to the next.”
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter whose work has appeared on ESPN, Fox Sports, USA Today, The Guardian, Newsweek, Men’s Health, NFL.com, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Ring Magazine and more. He has been writing for BoxingScene since 2018. Manouk is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.
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