Eddie Hearn says he’s happy with how Anthony Joshua stood his floor in his devasting knockout loss to Daniel Dubois in London. He feels that Joshua (28-4, 23 KOs) confirmed lots of braveness to maintain getting up after being repeatedly dropped by Dubois.
Joshua nearly pulled off an enormous comeback when he had Dubois harm within the fifth spherical after nailing him with a monster proper hand. Sadly for AJ, the first-round knockdown prompted him to perform at solely “30%.”
Hearn believes the primary spherical knockdown Joshua suffered price him the battle as a result of he by no means recovered from it. IBF heavyweight champion Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) took benefit of Joshua’s weakened punch resistance after spherical one to offer him a foul shellacking in rounds two, three, 4, and 5.
AJ was down 4 instances within the battle, and the ultimate knockdown within the fifth was the brutal one as a result of he regarded near being unconscious after getting hit with a proper hand that he didn’t see coming from Dubois.
Followers on social media imagine Joshua, 34, won’t ever be the identical after the beating he took towards Dubois. It will be a good suggestion for Hearn to surrender on his speak of a rematch as a result of Joshua doesn’t have to face Dubois ever once more after what he did to him.
“If you’d like drama, you bought drama. Not in the way in which we needed to. Within the first spherical, he went straight again together with his chin within the air and obtained hit with a monster proper hand,” mentioned Eddie Hearn to Charlie Parson’s YouTube channel, discussing Anthony Joshua’s loss to Daniel Dubois.
“Within the second spherical, he took a shellacking. He was out of the battle; the battle was over. I really thought the battle was over on the finish of the second spherical, and the third spherical was simply holding on for expensive life. He really was in a position to buzz Dubois within the third spherical, and it slowed Dubois down very barely.”
Dubois didn’t look harm by Joshua within the third. Within the fourth, Dubois was barely shocked by considered one of Joshua’s proper fingers, but it surely wasn’t important. It regarded like Dubois was gassed out greater than harm within the spherical as a result of he’d thrown lots of photographs in rounds one and two.
“Then, within the fourth spherical, I began to assume, ‘He’s getting his wind again, AJ.’ He harm Dubois once more within the fourth spherical, after which within the fifth spherical, he [Joshua] had him. He hit him with a monster proper hand, and the legs went, Dubois. The issue was that AJ was about 30% at that time,” mentioned Hearn.
Joshua was determined by the fifth spherical. So, he selected to go full in for the knockout when he shocked Dubois with a giant shot. If AJ had taken a cautious strategy, he wasn’t going to final for much longer anyway. He wasn’t the identical after the primary spherical, and Dubois regularly harm him.
“He got here in to attempt to end the job and walked onto a monster proper hand from Dubois, and that was all she wrote,” mentioned Hearn. “I used to be considering, ‘If we come again from right here, this shall be one of many best comeback victories of all time.’ However sadly, he walked onto a giant proper hand.
“I mentioned to him, ‘You couldn’t have achieved any extra. When it’s throughout, you may take a look at your self within the mirror and say I attempted my absolute nuts in there tonight.’ He gave it the whole lot. Congradulations to Daniel Dubois. He had an ideal begin.”
It’s a troublesome loss for Joshua to just accept as a result of he was the favourite to win and was preventing a man with nowhere close to the identical expertise or profession achievements. Joshua wans’t speculated to lose this battle, but he did.
You possibly can blame the loss on Joshua coming in trying cumbersome, carrying round an excessive amount of muscle, and backing up when underneath assault by Dubois. All of these issues had been an excessive amount of for Joshua to beat towards a fighter with youth and energy that Dubois had.
“That was a fear, I suppose, and it simply obtained worse. He got here by means of some huge photographs as nicely. He was harm, and he stood his floor. What AJ did was he held his ft and by no means stopped making an attempt to land huge photographs,” mentioned Hearn.
