[ad_1]
Anthony Joshua defends the IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight title against Kubrat Pulev on December 12, live on Sky Sports Box Office
Last Updated: 11/28/20 11:48 pm
Joe Joyce damaged Daniel Dubois’s left eye and stopped him in the 10th round of an intriguing clash between undefeated British heavyweights in London on Saturday.
Joyce hit her opponent’s heavily swollen eye with a ramrod, dropping Dubois dramatically to one knee. When he got up again, the referee immediately called off the fight.
The vast experience of Olympic silver medalist Joyce finally surpassed the prodigious punching power of Dubois, who is 12 years younger, after their fight at the crossroads that saw the British, European and Commonwealth titles at stake.
The 23-year-old Dubois had landed 14 knockouts in 15 wins but held onto the end of Joyce’s jab and eventually weakened.
Dubois’s difficulty avoiding the jab was apparent from the first exchanges: Dubois opened up to show his power in the second and as they took hold, the younger man exploded to land hurtful punches.
Dubois then sank a right hand in the third round, but Joyce, famous for his chin, absorbed it and controlled the rest of the round from behind his jab.
The fourth was all about Joyce’s jab and Dubois finished it off with a puffy, scarred face.
The pre-fight consensus was that Dubois’s hopes were in the early rounds, but he reminded Joyce of his dangerousness in the fifth, landing a right and then a left.
Halfway through, Dubois’s left eye was heavily swollen and had already been tested more than in all of his previous fights combined.
Dubois landed a big right hand in the seventh, but Joyce, the tough as teak, held firm.
As the rounds progressed, the damage around Dubois’s left eye only got worse and the fight slowly diminished in favor of Joyce, whose pre-fight prediction was to win the fight in later rounds.
Seconds after the 10th, Joyce landed another thud and Dubois suddenly sank to one knee.
Although he got up, there was no complaint from him when the referee stopped the fight.
Loser Joyce, 35, and now undefeated in 12 with 11 stoppages, went home with British, European and Commonwealth titles, but more importantly a boost to his world title ambitions.
Dubois had been ranked No. 2 with the WBO, the governing body that recognizes Oleksandr Usyk as Anthony Joshua’s mandatory belt challenger.
Joshua will defend his IBF, WBA and WBO titles against Kubrat Pulev on December 12, live Sky Sports ticket office.
He then plans to fight WBC champion Tyson Fury in 2021, but Usyk will push for his mandatory fight, and now Joyce is a new addition to the mix.
[ad_2]
