FUTURE ON THE LINE FOR BATTLING DUBOIS
HEAVYWEIGHT hope ‘Dynamite’ Daniel Dubois faces D-Day over his boxing future next week.
He meets an eye specialist on Friday — and the 23-year-old could be told that his fighting days are over.
Dubois suffered a fractured eye socket and nerve damage during his clash with Joe Joyce for the British, Commonwealth and European belts last November.
On two of the judges’ cards Dubois was ahead on points after nine rounds.
But, with a possible world-title shot less than nine minutes away, he had to take the full ‘10’ count in the 10th after a thudding Joyce jab landed on his swollen left eye.
There’s talk Joyce will next fight for the interim WBO belt against the Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk, while Dubois is praying he’s given the all-clear to carry on boxing.
Manager-trainer Martin Bowers said: “Daniel’s future hangs in the balance. We are waiting to get the report back from his doctor. If we are told Daniel could lose his sight the next time he takes a punch, then it’s over, he won’t be fighting again.”
Bowers, chief of the Peacock gym where Dubois has been based since he turned professional with Frank Warren, is hopeful
Dubois won’t even require surgery and will soon be allowed back in the gym.
Bowers said: “I told him, ‘Let’s get the eye sorted out first’. That’s the top priority, then we start training again and thinking about when he will be ready to fight.”
Critics branded Dubois a quitter after the way he bowed out against Joyce, but Bowers insisted: “People have questioned Daniel’s character. But to me, he proved his character.
“He boxed for seven or eight rounds with that eye injury — and never complained once. He just kept going and he was winning the fight with that injury.”