MIGHTY JOE JOYCE
The Juggernaut explains why he was too strong for Dubois
DUBOIS IS NOT THE FIRST BOXER TO STRUGGLE WITH THIS CONUNDRUM
AS the pain from the final blow burrowed into Daniel
Dubois’ left eyeball, the heavyweight dropped to one knee and waited for referee Ian John Lewis to count to 10. In that moment of self-preservation, 36 seconds into the 53rd round of his professional career, 23-year-old Dubois decided he didn’t want to fight Joe Joyce anymore.
The cruel world of boxing turned on Dubois. Gone was the promising young heavyweight powerhouse, the king in waiting, the prospect who could do no wrong. In his place, grateful for safety on the canvas, was a ‘quitter’.
Quitter: A person who gives up easily or does not have the courage or determination to finish a task.
After drug cheat, it’s the filthiest, dirtiest label that can be put on a boxer and one, I’d argue, that’s grossly unfair on this occasion. Dubois was suddenly a quitter, not because he gave up easily (he didn’t) or because he doesn’t have courage (he does) but because other boxers, both at ringside inside Westminster’s Church House and on social media, classified Dubois as such.
Boxers not only possess super-human bravery that affords them the right to pass judgement on the warrior code they live by, but also super-human egos that can sometimes disguise any true empathy. For some, their own machoism is boosted via an observation that a fellow boxer ‘quit’ and, in turn, an inference they would never do so themselves. But to put oneself in another’s shoes is never an exact science, irrespective of the paths those attempting to do so have taken.
Dubois fought with one eye for several rounds, his orbital bone in his skull was fractured and the nerve damage he was enduring must have made Joyce’s gloved fists feel like knives. His decision to stay down in the 10th round – which may or may not have been a decision other boxers would have made in that instant – was followed by another: To face the music and the TV cameras and be interviewed. Such pluck is rare in a ‘quitter’, so too is the courage he’ll draw on to come back from such an injury. One hopes the heavyweight gets the chance to again prove exactly how brave he is.
Irrespective of one’s view of the finish, what led to it deserves only universal acclaim. Joyce, 35, was a clear underdog going into this contest despite the fact he followed a long and successful amateur career by taking care of 11 predominantly solid professional opponents with the minimum of fuss. Those years of experience proved to be the difference here.
Joyce beat Dubois to the first jab, approximately five seconds in, and a pattern was set. Dubois scored with a solid left to the body, but Joyce was the one establishing control.
He could be seen before the bout practising in his dressing room with trainer Steve Broughton (who was faultless after stepping in for the Covidpositive Ismael Salas), slipping an oncoming left and countering to the body. Within a minute of the opening bell he executed the move and more besides: The Putney man aimed high and low, was largely accurate, and Dubois’ features were showing signs of damage before the end of the round.
Joyce’s jab, which is like no other jab you will see in top level boxing, became the fight’s definitive punch. His feet and defence also break the rules of textbook boxing but they somehow worked in tandem to keep Dubois’ left hook and right hand at bay. Joyce looks like he can’t box at times, yet he boxes so well, and it’s that oxymoronic skillset which is perhaps his biggest strength. Dubois is not the first boxer to struggle to solve this odd conundrum; preparing for the intricacies of the “Juggernaut” is like playing in a ball pit and then being expected to swim across the Channel.
Joyce – in his own unique way – took away Dubois’ perceived advantages in power and speed, by making what appeared to be a small ring when no one was in it look much bigger when two hulking heavyweights were. For Joyce to create such an illusion was no mean feat.
But Dubois had his moments and, more than once, Joyce had to call on his cast iron chin to keep him out of trouble. In the second round, Daniel’s right hand scored over the top and when he started the third with a series of hefty blows, there was a brief feeling that he could overrun Joyce. The older man then bossed the fourth as Dubois’ eye worsened. Yet “DDD” entered the fifth loose and ready to fire; a hearty one-two bounced off his man before he progressed inside and unloaded to Joyce’s midsection. It was perhaps the final time he looked capable of winning the fight.