And down goes Fury…

From the moment the bell rang Joshua looked off. He was slow flat footed, and not switched on. As the two made their way towards the center of the ring, Dubois had as sense of urgency with intentions to hurt. Whereas if you compare that to Joshua slowly trotting out like he was in a spar. Joshua took a very rigid stance with his hands low and chin way up in the air…all not good signs. Joshua attempted to work his jab slowly, but Dubois clearly unfazed, walked through it and got his own jab working early. This affected Joshua as each landed jab from Dubois visibly knocked his head back. The round was clearly edging to Dubois…all because Joshua “Failed to get his hands ups”. Joshua attempted to get himself back into the fight throwing right hands around the guard with a very powerful one at the end of the round one, but it failed to land. As Joshua retreated, he threw a faint that left him wide open for a well timed right hand over the top landing perfectly on the chin. This was essentially the beginning of the end and would’ve most likely been the end if this wasn’t a big event with BIG SAUDI money involved. Joshua barely made the count and failed to stand up straight “wobbling about” as they say.

The second round didn’t start much better as Dubois came out hot, landing lethal combinations on Joshua, as he clearly hadn’t recovered fully from the knockdown. In font of 90,000 plus, Joshua not only looked too relaxed but looked amateur at times. As while he was being tee’d off on in the corner, instead of momentarily shelling up and countering with a well placed stiff jab and subsequent powerful right hand behind it, he resorted to pushing Dubois off of him, something a novice would do.

It continued to get worse for Joshua as he was knocked down again at the end of round after missing a right hand and being counted with a slapping right immediately after, wobbling him once more. Joshua never seemed to have his legs under him for the entirety of the fight and after the first knockdown he never seemed to get them back. He had no answer for Dubois’ barrage of offense, except clinching and running…in other words surviving.

As the fourth round started, Dubois pressured him so much so that he fell without a punch landing. He then fell again shortly after. There was confusion on if the ref had called the fight as Joshua clearly had no fight left in him, but luckily for Joshua, the ref ruled it a slip and not a knockdown. For the remainder of the round, Dubois continued to chase Joshua around the ring with Joshua only having a weak jab to offer back. Somehow…Joshua survived another round.

As Joshua took the stool, Eminem’s Lose Yourself began to play, maybe in some measly attempt to inspire something in Joshua. His trainer Ben Davison told him “to look for an uppercut”, A punch he had tried a few times previous, but to virtually no success. As the bell sounded Joshua look like he had resigned himself to a loss…or so we thought. Joshua took the center of the ring first, “a sign of a fire burning inside”. He quickly rescinded it back to Dubois as he got back on the back foot, “Ok…maybe he’s setting up a trap”. His movement seemed intentional this time as he began popping the jab and using quick head movements to distract Dubois, “maybe for a right hand soon to come”? Dubois came in quick and shut down the faints, but Joshua saw this coming and rolled away from the punches clinching to stop the barrage. As the referee separated them Joshua quickly began moving forward, throwing a fast Jab to back Dubois up. He postured and frozen Dubois momentarily. Giving him just enough time to throw a fast right hand over the top stunning Dubois…he hurt him. Dubois in desperate need of recovery backed up, Joshua followed with mean intentions in his eyes. For the first time in the fight, Dubois had become the hunted and Joshua the hunter. Joshua through a nice left hook to guide Dubois into the corner, Just where he wanted him. Joshua inched closer falling over himself with the opportunity to pull off an all time comeback just within sight. He threw another right hand that landed, and Dubois ducked low…”could this be it”? Dubois came back with a right of his own as Joshua was pulling back after his big right hand. Joshua was hurt, but not enough to back off…for he saw a finish within reach.

At that moment Joshua saw an opening in the guard of Dubois that he hadn’t seen before. Dubois had dropped his left hand after throwing the counter right just moments ago. There was no time to wait…Joshua remember what his trainer had told him moments prior…“look for the uppercut”. This was his moment, and he wasn’t going to let it slip through his fingers. Joshua opened up nice and wide for a big right hook…and BANG!!!!

Down goes Joshua.

I don’t know what Anthony Joshua thought going into this fight. He looked slow and tired from the opening bell. Treating this opportunity to get back on top as if it were a spar. Dubois on the other hand recongized the moment and rose to it. Labelled a quitter after suffering two fractures to his orbital bone by the rock’em sock’em fist of Joe Joyce, Dubois had a difficult road back to the top of the division. Dubois started slow with a win over Joe Cusumano on the Jake Paul undercard of all things, and eventually worked his way up to a fight versus The all time heavyweight great Oleksandr Usyk. Some say he won that fight, with a crisp body blow that was ruled a low blow. As much as I respect Usyk I’d tend to agree, but whatever it may be, he couldn’t make the count in the ninth giving Usyk the win. Unfortunate for Dubois, he’d come all this way only to as he put it “be cheated out of a win”. Faced with the reality of not being good enough, Did he let this deter him…NO.

Later that year he took a risky fight versus an undefeated knockout artist in Jarrell Miller. Miller gave him some trouble early on, and the quitting allegations jumped back into the fray, but Dubois quickly put those to rest. As he battled back for a knockout in the final round. Next, Dubois took an even harder fight versus Filip Hergovic, (another undefeated fighter who was coming off two knockouts) and as he himself felt, was intentionally being neglected from the upper echelon of heavyweight contenders. Now was Hergovic’s opportunity to prove himself right verse a very game “Dynamite” Dubois. Unfortunately for him he was stopped in round eight and put to rest.

The road Dubois took to get here was a difficult one, and forged him for this very moment versus Anthony Joshua. Where you compare Joshua’s road, (after being embarrassed twice by Usyk) you see why the fight went the way it did. I can only assume Joshua saw another glorified punching back in Dubois as he saw in Ngannou and Helenius. He deployed the same strategy, but little did he know he was fighting a game, seasoned, and hunger contender ready to take his moment. I think someone heard the music, and lost himself in the moment…and it was “Dynamite” Daniel Dubois.