Dubois did 25 headbuts vs Hrgovic, video count

The one at 3:10 was dirty, I agree. But the rest? They didn't really look deliberate to me, and certainly don't look high impact. Why bother with cheating with headbutts if you don't hurt the guy with it? That way, you only run the risk of getting caught and penalised for it. If you are going to headbutt, you might as well do it to hurt the guy. The one at 3:10 was a textbook example for that, the rest–nah, I don't see it.

 

I kind of agree, I don't think it was a specific strategy from Dubois to just headbutt his way to victory, sometimes you get a bad style clash and heads bang together a lot, he just leads with his head and in the clinches does what a good trainer tells a fighter to do, especially against taller fighters which is push your head into the throat of your opponent to lift his head, compromising their centre of gravity allowing the shorter fighter to physically dominate on the inside.

I see this as a clash of styles with a referee that didn't do their job. I also don't think he made a huge difference in the outcome of the fight. It's not like he was dropped or even rattled by a headbutt like Parker was against Whyte, what bothered Hrgovic more were the huge shots he was taking from Dubois fists not his head.

 

I agree about the low blows, those were 100% deliberate. Dubois is definitely quite a dirty fighter. But most of the headbutting looked reckless to me rather than outright intentional. It is actually really hard to effectively use your head as a third punch without the referee noticing it.

 

I don't see it like that. Was it dangerous, yes definitely, but we can't read minds so can't know his intent and I never saw him intentionally try to butt him by suddenly making an unnatural movement with his head to butt Hrgovic. He's a fighter who leads with his head which is dangerous and the refs job to warn and deduct points for and he uses his head in the clinches to gain an advantage which is a common tactic but again the refs job to enforce that and it's not the same as a headbutt like if he dipped his knees and rammed his head into Hrgovic's chin.

 

Perfectly put. I would say that Dubois certainly didn't mind if Hrgovic's head was hit by his as he was going in. He wasn't paying attention to not hurt Hrgovic that way at all, that much is very clear. But it really is difficult to intentionally use your head that way effectively. You have to protect your chin, and you simply don't have eyes on the back of your head to see exactly where you can put the top of your head to hit the other guy in the chin or the cheekbone.

 

Yeah, hurgy got found out. The head butting didn’t win the fight. The was no heart or stamina from Hygovic, he just walked in like a bully and got beat up.