Daniel Dubois faces Jarrell Miller on December 23, looking to bounce back from a loss in his first step-up to a world title challenge.
The young Brit’s bout with Oleksandr Usyk briefly looked to be in his favour when he delivered a shot that dropped the unified champion. Referee Luis Pabon, though, immediately ruled it a low blow.
Usyk would record and stop Dubois in the ninth round, the 26-year-old on one knee watching Pabon count and standing up too late. He didn’t protest the decision to end the fight.
It’s this action that has many questioning the heart of ‘Dynamite’ Dubois, who also took a knee against Joe Joyce in 2020, albeit after suffering a dangerous eye injury that one doctor said may have been career-ending should he have carried on.
Speaking on the broadcast of the press conference, heavyweight veteran Derek Chisora referred back to, in the eyes of many, that big question mark hanging over Dubois when predicting the Miller fight.
“If Daniel don’t quit, he wins the fight. But if Daniel starts quitting in rounds four or five, he loses the fight.”
Miller enters the ring shrouded in controversy. He has built up three wins since a two-year ban for doping – his third offence of the sort in combat sports.
His brash and impressive trash-talk stole the show at the press conference, calling Dubois a ‘bitch’ and targeting the man he was set to face before failing drugs tests, Anthony Joshua.