Former two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua is promising another revival.
Joshua suffered the fourth defeat of his career Saturday night, falling to Daniel Dubois in devastating fashion when he was dropped four times and knocked out in five rounds in front of a record crowd of 96,000 fans at London’s Wembley Stadium.
The 34-year-old Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) is now 6-4 in his past 10 fights dating back to 2019.
AJ came into the clash unbeaten in his previous four fights, after suffering back-to-back decision losses to Oleksandr Usyk in 2021 and 2022. But “Dynamite” Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) proved to be too dominant, scoring knockdowns in Rounds 1, 3, 4 and 4.
Much like Joshua’s first career loss – to Andy Ruiz Jr. in 2019, when he was also dropped four times and stopped in the seventh – Joshua never seemed to get his legs back after suffering the first knockdown against Dubois. But he still fought bravely and showed plenty of heart and courage. Joshua even clipped and hurt his British countryman moments before he was knocked out.
“I always hold my head high,” Joshua said during his post-fight press conference. “We took a shot at success and came up short, unfortunately. We rolled the dice and created history for British boxing.”
Joshua did not take any questions from the media, but he quelled concerns that perhaps he would call it a career following the loss.
“Of course I want to continue fighting,” said Joshua. “We’re going to live to fight another day. That’s what I am – a warrior. We have to give credit to Daniel. I take my hat off to him. I want to thank my team for the way they prepared me. There were a few mistakes in there, but that’s the name of the game. Fine margins can cost you at the top level.”
Dubois, who retained his IBF title, outlanded Joshua 79 to 32 in the firefight.
“He rolled the dice [in the fifth round] and hurt Daniel but was just a little bit reckless in terms of his application in the final moments,” said Joshua’s trainer, Ben Davison.
“We were still in the fight after such a bad start. I’m very proud of what he showed in there against a young, strong, hungry fighter in Dubois. It was a terrible situation to be in. Not saying a lot of fighters would quit – in a sense, to ask to be pulled out – but a lot of fighters wouldn’t try to fight the way AJ did. I’m really proud of him for that.
“There was nothing that Daniel did that shocked us. We were expecting him to do those things. Preparation went well. So we have to go back and look at the fight to see what we can do better to help AJ be better.”
By Manouk Akopyan