As well as plenty of controversy over the legality of a body shot in the fifth round, Daniel Dubois has attracted comments for the way his world title challenge with Oleksandr Usyk ended with him once again seeing out a 10 count on his knee, and one top trainer has no doubt he quit.
Dubois seemed to have his senses and was staring intently at the referee while awaiting the count of 10 to finish having taken his knee after a straight jab in the ninth round. This has led many to say the young Brit took a way out when he seemingly had more left to give.
Speaking to Boxing King Media, Dominic Ingle, who has trained the likes of Kell Brook, explained what he thinks was Dubois’s mindset towards the end of the fight.
“I think you get caught with something and you think, ‘wow it has troubled me’ then you start to lose your confidence.”
He then explained that fighters must be up before the nine count if they want to carry on otherwise it doesn’t look good.
“The final knockdown was a straight shot and he waited, and you see fighters doing it, you’ve got the up by the count of eight, realistically, when you’re on the floor.
You can’t leave it to nine, nine and a half. That signifies to me [fighters could then say] ‘oh I shouldn’t have been stopped.’ If you can get up at nine and a half, you can get up at eight.”
He then compared it to the heroic case of Tyson Fury rising from the dead when he boxed Deontay Wilder the first time around and concluded that Dubois just didn’t have the heart to carry on.
“He was flat on his back asleep, not moving, and then he climbed up and beat the count so, for me, I think I said it in previous interviews especially when he boxed [Joe] Joyce, when he saw it going to the other way and the tide was turning it’s almost like in Dubois heads he’s like ‘oh that’s me done, that’s my 80%,’ whereas some fighters get to 99% damage, then start thinking about it, then still fight through.
He did quit. If he’s raising at 9 and a half he’s not sustained enough damage otherwise he’d be down past 10.”
Unsurprisingly, trainer Don Charles has not taken kindly to anyone suggesting his man quit.