Daniel Dubois’s decision not to involve himself in social media has helped him to get over his traumatic loss to Joe Joyce, according to his promoter. Frank Warren.
Dubois took a knee in the tenth round of the British, Commonwealth and European heavyweight title fight in November after suffering a factured eye socket and retina damage.
But the manner of the loss sparked widescale uproar on social media platforms with many accusing Dubois of quitting. Dubois, though, does not bother with social media, despite having a Twitter account run by his team, so has not been bothered by much of the sensationalist criticism as he hasn’t seen it.
“He is not interested in social media, which is very good,” Warren said. “He just wants to get on and fight.”
“I met with him last week. He is not a braggard or a loudmouth and was quite philosophical. When he was caught, he said the pain was searing right through his head.
“He said it has happened and he has to get on it. The pressure’s on him now, but it is not like he took a real belting or got knocked out. If he had been pulled out the round before, two judges had him ahead on their scorecard.”
The defeat at Church House in Westminster in November was the first of Dubois’s career after 15 wins. Victory would have put him in line for a shot at the WBO title. But while Warren is eyeing up a fight between Joyce and Oleksandr Usyk for the interim WBO title, he has Dubois pencilled in for a ring return in early May.
The heavyweight has an appointment with his eye specialist early next month, which it is hoped will lead to him getting the green light to return to full training.
“The doctor is happy with the way the fractures have healed,” Warren said.. “He has to go back to get his retina looked at again, but hopefully he will then be OK to go again then and get back into full training.
“We want to get him back out in late April or maybe May. All of us are very disappointed with what happened, but he is young and we are not going to rush him into anything.”
Ron Lewis is a senior writer for Boxing Scene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 – covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.
