Joe Joyce gets STUNNING KO win over Daniel Dubois with JAB to horror closed eye in tenth round in huge underdog shock
JOE JOYCE shut up his critics and Daniel Dubois’ eye with a masterclass performance of jabbing and freakish resilience.
The 35-year-old Juggernaut walked through ten rounds of heavy shots from the 23-year-old powerhouse, but broke his spirit and forced him down and out after 30 minutes.
Despite his 2012 Olympic silver medal, Joyce was made the underdog against the 15-0 untested wonderkid.
And he used all his Team GB textbook skills and his famous granite chin to batter Dubois into submission with only his arrowlike left hand.
The 6ft 6in gentleman landed the British, Commonwealth and European titles and catapulted himself into world title contention in 2021.
Dubois went straight to hospital after the bruising defeat, with fears of nerve damage or a cracked orbital bone.
Joyce constantly pawed out a jab throughout the opener, Dubois’ was less frequent but more punishing.
Dynamite Dan punished one weak punch with a chopping left hook that woke Joyce up. But the 6ft 6in Putney giant clipped the Greenwich youngster with a one-two.
Dubois launched into the second with menace, another piston-like left rocked Joyce’s head back and a right hand really wobbled him, forcing the 35-year-old into holding and grabbing on for balance.
Dubois peppered the famous Joyce chin with another one-two but the fine art uni graduate brushed off the assault and scored back with the jab he honed on the Team GB squad in Sheffield, where he did thousands of rounds with Anthony Joshua before their Olympic charges.
Dubois had 19-year-old sister and Olympic youth champion Caroline shouting herself hoarse with encouragement, ordering big bro to slip Joyce’s jab better.
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Two more straight power punches landed from Dubois in the fourth but Joyce’s jab got him back in control of the rounds – and had blind mum Marvel cheering and whopping on the opposite balcony at hearing her son work his way back from a slow start.
Dubois’ left eye was closing by the fifth after 15 minutes on the end of Joyce’s white-gloved left fist.
But it was the younger, shorter man unloading the booming punches that had the best chance of ending the night early.
Trainer Martin Bowers used all of his experience to work on Dubois’ closing left eye at the end of the sixth and the pummelled peeper was now a handy target for Joyce.
As soon as the sixth started, Dubois thundered half a dozen shots into Joyce’s skull, crunching right hands and looping uppercuts landed but Joyce barely winced and returned fire.
With Dubois clinging to his eyesight and undefeated record, Bowers roared in his East London accent: “This is the fight game son, and you are in it!”
But the right hand Joyce again absorbed – like a peck on the cheek – showed he had the heart for the darkest of battles.
At the start of the week, Joyce’s camp was rocked with the news trainer Ismael Salas had tested positive and was booted out of the fight hotel.
The gameplan to beat Dubois looked in tatters, but assistant Steve Broughton and British boxing legend Jimmy Tibbs took over the corner and executed the mission perfectly.
Throughout the ninth, Joyce could not miss with his jab and landed his first real right hand of the night.
It was the veteran’s best round as he finally unleashed some backhanders after semi-blinding his rival with punches that appeared, from 15ft away, to do no damage.
Dubois took a knee in the 10th when a jab hit him right on the bullseye of a bruise that had grown over his face, failing to beat the count from referee Ian John Lewis.
Joyce can now target clashes with old amateur rival Oleksandr Usyk and sparring partners Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
While Dubois and his mangled eye must repair and rebuild for a return to the most exciting boxing division.