Anthony Joshua was slaughtered by the young lion, IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois, losing by a fifth ound knockout in a totally one-sided fight on Saturday night at Wembley Stadium in London.
The knockdown came in the fifth round after Joshua had backed Dubois up after stunning him with a right hand that had his legs looking wobbly. Joshua went for the kill and tried to connect with a shot, but Dubois countered him with a right that put him down hard on the canvas.
Joshua lay on the canvas, unable to get up from that knockdown and continue fighting. He was too hurt and had taken too much punishment in the previous rounds.
Looking bulky and slower than usual, Joshua (28-4, 20 KOs) was knocked down by a right hand from Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) late in round one. Joshua never appeared to recover from that knockdown, as he was
Dubois knocked Joshua down in the third round with a right hand that didn’t appear to be that hard of a shot, but AJ acted like a rifle had shot him with the way he went down.
In the fourth, Joshua was knocked down again by Dubois with a powerful right hand. Briefly, it appeared that the fight would be stopped, but it was allowed to go on despite Joshua appearing badly hurt and uncompetitive.
With the win, Dubois holds onto his IBF title and puts Joshua in a bad career position. He must decide whether to take the rematch, retire, or move on.
AJ’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, said after the fight that they have a rematch clause and they would look to fight Dubois again to try and avenge the loss. However, if Joshua decides to take that path, he could risk getting sent into retirement because what we saw tonight was troubling. Dubois looked too young, too strong, and too fast for Joshua.
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