Neither Dubois nor Hrgovic deserve a belt

When talking about fighters, most of us tend to focus on physical attributes and skill levels such as power, techniques, stamina, and ring IQ. This is rightfully so, as this is what is most apparent to most of us who watch the sport of boxing. We judge the fighters based on what we can see, and have little in the way of knowing what goes on in a fighter's mind. However, the mental toughness of any fighter can only be seen in specific instances, such as when they get truly tested and are shown legitimate adversity inside the ring. Some of us comment on it, but often the talk tends to blow over with the exceptions of when a fighter loses a belt. But we often overlook it or ignore it when it comes to those who haven't won a clear belt yet.

Why did I go on and on about this? Because I think way too many people are either playing down or totally ignoring what we've seen in this aspect from two fighters in particular: Daniel Dubois and Filip Hrgovic. Based on what I've seen, neither of these fighters deserve a belt. The former we found out about tonight, and the latter has made it quite obvious in his last few fights.

First, Dubois: I'll give him the benefit of the doubt in the Joyce fight, he had a legitimate injury and he made the right call in not continuing the fight. Last night, however, was a different story. Regardless of what you think of the low blow call, Dubois showed virtually no mental toughness whatsoever against Usyk. It was obvious from his two "knockdowns" that he willingly took a knee on both. Now, willfully taking a knee in itself is not a sign of a lack of mental toughness. If anything, it's a smart tactic when you're willing to throw away a point in order to continue the fight. The problem comes in with what happened after. I think anyone who's been around boxing for a while knowns that the smart thing to do when floored is to get up at the count of 8. That gives you as much time as you can take to recover while still showing a willingness to fight on. Fighters who get up at the count of 9, however, more often than not are saying that they're done but don't want everyone to realize that. You're playing with fire as many refs will automatically call out a fighter who gets up at 9 (as seen last night and on many other occasions), and if your legs aren't under you then you really risk the possibility of stumbling and not being on your feet at 10. The point here is that Dubios' body language on both of those knockdowns seemed to indicate not that he was physically hurt, but that he lost the will to continue the fight.

Hrgovic is a bit different of a story. His last few fights have been quite odd, to say the least. There was more than one occasion in his fight again Zhang where he legitimately looked lost, and I think on at least one of those occasions he was damn lucky that the ref didn't wave the fight off right then and there. More recently, in his fight against McKean, he spent half the fight looking like he wanted to be somewhere else, regardless of the fact that McKean clearly wasn't on his level skill-wise. He could have (and should have) ended that fight in the first few rounds, but instead looked bored and completely uninterested in doing what he needed to do to end it. That, to me, means that he's simply not in the right frame of mind to be able to take on someone who has skills on his same level. And it's why I don't think he deserves a shot at a belt until proven otherwise.

I'm not saying that neither fighter should ever get another shot at a belt. Things can always change, like Dubois can pull himself together and find that determination and hunger that he needs, or Hrgovic can sort out whatever mental issues are plaguing him and go back to being a force of nature with an attitude to match. But as it stands right now, neither fighter should be given a shot at a belt when there are plenty of other skilled heavyweights who deserve it more.