Anthony Joshua has explained the reasons behind his knockout loss to Daniel Dubois in the fifth round of their heavyweight bout on Saturday, where Dubois retained his IBF heavyweight title. The fight, held at Wembley Stadium in front of a crowd of 96,000, saw a dominant performance from Dubois. The 27-year-old knocked Joshua down four times before delivering the final blow—a powerful right to the chin that ended the fight.
In his post-match press conference, Joshua reflected on his mistakes throughout the match, noting that things went wrong as early as the first round. He said, “The first round? Overhand right, chin in the air, no defense, kaboom. And it was a bit of a downhill slope from there. Tried to change the tides but it just wasn’t my night tonight.”
Joshua also described what happened in the fifth round, where he had initially started strong. “I caught him with a good shot, I think, and then I tried to go for it, and then I got caught with an overhead right while I was throwing the uppercut. The thing is, I wasn’t setting shots up. In a shootout like that, you really got to be a bit more sniper-esque. But when you’ve been hit a few times, it’s survival mode. I just wanted to get him out of there, and we had a shootout, and he hit me.”
This fight marks another difficult loss for Joshua, while Dubois continues to rise in the heavyweight rankings.
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