Daniel Dubois bowed out of his fight with Joe Joyce in 2020 (Image: Getty)
John Fury rushed to Daniel Dubois’ defence as he took a knee during his fight with Joe Joyce, while others accused the Briton of ‘quitting’. ‘DDD’ was 15 fights unbeaten when he met with the ‘Juggernaut’ in November 2020, with the Commonwealth, WBC Silver, WBO International and European heavyweight titles on the line.
And while many fight fans were expecting dominance from Dubois, given his resume of 14 career knockouts at the time, the contest played out in a contrasting state of affairs. Joyce kept Dubois at bay with his patented jab for the most part, while swelling his opponent’s eye shut by the halfway stage of the bout.
Joyce secured a TKO victor in the tenth round of the contest, when Dubois took a knee in the centre of the ring off a back of yet another well-placed jab. Dubois stayed down for the count, ultimately losing the fight in doing so, while some of the heavyweight’s rivals and fans branded him a ‘quitter’.
However, what many did not realise at the time was that Dubois had actually fractured his orbital bones and suffered nerve damage during the contest – with defending his decision to end the bout prematurely. Speaking to , the father of explained: “The lad done very, very well.
“He’s 23 years old. It’s only a boxing match. He’s not gonna lose his eye over a boxing match, is he? I think he’s done the right thing. Joe Joyce is a gigantic man and he was hitting hard with the jab. Who knows? It could be a career-threatening injury.
“You’re not gonna lose your career over a boxing match, are you?” Dubois’ manager, Frank Warren also took to social media to defend his fighter, writing: “Daniel Dubois will be back. He is still only 23 and has a huge and successful career ahead of him.
John Fury rushed to Daniel Dubois’ defence (Image: Getty)
“He took a risk, and this time it didn’t come off. Full credit for fighting his heart out as long as he did with a fractured orbital bone and nerve damage around his eye.” Meanwhile, Dubois himself has since explained that being branded a ‘quitter’ didn’t bother him in the grand scheme of things.
Speaking with TNT Sports in 2021, the heavyweight said: “Being called a quitter and all of that, it didn’t bother me at all really. I just didn’t want to close the show on a performance like that because I know I’m better than that.”
Since his loss to Joyce, Dubois has gone on to build a remarkable pro-boxing record of 22-2, only faltering once more in a controversial knockout loss to in 2023 – a fight the hard hitter believes could have went in his favour should his fifth-round knockdown have not been ruled as a low blow.
Fast forward to February 2025, and Dubois was set to defend his IBF heavyweight title against Joseph Parker on Saturday night. However, ‘DDD’ was forced to pull out at the 11th hour after falling ill 48 hours before the first bell.
Instead, it will be Scotland-based Congolese Martin Bakole who will face Parker at the Kingdom Arena in Saudi Arabia after he received the call-up on extremely late notice.