His corner have a lot to answer for. I went and read the BBC live text commentary, he told them a few times between fights about his eye and not knowing what tot do. They knew he was completely out of his depth, to the extent they said to him ‘you’re in the fight game now’. That, combined with the eye, to me they should have pulled him sooner.
I'm a big critic of Joshua and he did kind of quit against Ruiz, but Dubois' quit job was worse. Dubois wasn't even taking a beating, just getting jabbed too much and had a swollen eye.
Having said that, if a corner and a doctor isn’t willing to save someone from themselves, then the boxer needs to step up. Nick Blackwell being the prime example.
Yet he was badly pumped by a feather fisted Warrington and has no idea what it feels like being pounded by a huge man. Dubois would knock Frampton right over the Thames should he wish to try and understand.
He did quit, but quitting is not just black and white. Boxing is an inherently dangerous sport, and some are "warrior" enough to reach the final bell no matter what. You could also say these boxers are stupid because they may be impeding their future career prospects through prolonging the punishment and of course, there is more to life than boxing. There are various reasons for quitting, and it seems that some are perceived as more valid than others. I've noticed a lot of boxing fans have an odd attitude and reluctance to just say things how it is when a boxer quits. As I've said, quitting is not just quitting, but when someone quits, they quit. There's nothing wrong with saying that someone quit, but there may be a lot wrong in the consequent assessment of events. That's a weird phenomenon among boxing fans. There's nothing wrong in spitting it out.
The corner were trying to encourage him through a tough fight. I didn't see a horrendous cruel one-sided beating last night, with a callous corner and referee leaving a brave young warrior to a merciless fate, like some of you are making it sound. I saw two undefeated heavyweights in a decent tough fight and one guy quit when it was getting tough for him in the later stages.
Boxing is often a cruel sport; traditions take a long time to die, even when they should. In the past I am as guilty as anyone of calling someone a quitter (Benn Vs Collins sticks out). There will be some who will always bring this up, even if Dubois comes back and has a Louis-esque reign. But fighters do comeback; Marciano and Holmes quit fights as amateurs; Wlad lost to Purity; all three came back strong to get in the top twenty of Queensberry rules Heavyweight fighters. Dubois has time on his side, he can comeback and if he has half the success of the three fighters I named, he would have more than had a very successful career.
If there was no eye injury then I totally agree with this assessment. Would he have quit without the eye injury? We will certainly know the answer in the future as boxing guarantees a full test of heart and bottle - only a matter of time before he ends up having to show both in a fight.
It's a tough one this, I can see it from both sides. The trainer will have thought that Dubois was possibly ahead and very much still in the fight with only a couple of rounds left. So all he needed to do was hang in there a bit longer. From Dubois' perspective I believe it's the first time he's ever gone through adversity in the ring (sparring is different, as it's not everything on the line). He's such a physical freak at a very young age that he'll have dominated everyone in his path for pretty much all of his life, coupled with everyone telling him he's a monster and blowing smoke up his arse. So last night he had the physical adversity of a bad eye injury and the emotional difficulty of Joyce standing up to his power and inflicting some back, so I think he was totally overwhelmed and literally didn't know what to do apart from want to get out of the situation, which is very understandable. For a normal person 'self-preservation and quitting' is a totally natural response but for a professional fighter that wants to win world titles, you can't do this, you have to find that bit of extra that 99.9% of the population don't have and soldier on. Maybe last night will be the makings of him but it could quite possibly be the breaking of him too. Which way he goes depends on whether he has the mental resilience and self-belief that the 0.01% of elite performers have.
I agree with the original post. When it comes to eye injuries and potentially losing vision I do not blame him one bit for ‘quitting’. He’s looking out for himself. He thought **** this it isn’t worth a potentially life altering injury just so he can appear a bit more macho. In fact I’d say it took more courage to pull himself out.
I honestly think it was a strong possibility. Joyce was coming in to his own and coming on strong, Dubois’ tank had been empty for ages and his power was failing him. Need to bare in mind he had never been the distance before (still hasn’t) so was hard for him to manage his energy.
Here's the thing I don't understand about the backlash to quitting... So what if he did? Its not like he was just scared and ran off. He couldn't see and he gave himself a chance of fighting again. Who knows what would have happened with other punches. Never boxed myself so try not to judge fighters too too harsh and laugh at any fan who has a pop like you'd march blindly into a 6 foot 6 guys punches
I agree with all of this except it isn't "so he can appear a bit more macho" .... it's so he can WIN the fight. He wasn't taking a massive beating at all, he was still in the fight. I'm certain any top flight fighter wouldn't have lost that belief they could win. The fight was not one-sided. I agree, he's done what he felt was best. But boxing is a tough tough game, and the top flight fighters get there by being a bit crazy and that's what it is. If we judge him by the standard other fighters set, he fell well short by quitting.
