I fought Daniel Dubois and knocked him down – Anthony Joshua is spot on about him’
Kevin Lerena confesses that Anthony Joshua was right about his rival Daniel Dubois’ ‘no-quitter’ attitude in the ring.
Dubois is set to fight Joshua next month and Lerena has claimed that the match will be “very 50/50” between them. Speaking on the Seconds Out podcast, the South African boxer shared that Dubois has a serious kind of spirit that could turn the fight in his favour.
Lerena and Dubois fought in late 2022 and the South African knocked his opponent down three times – but Dubois got back up every time and eventually won the fight by knocking Lerena down. Back in 2020, Dubois had been dealing with backlash from the public after he chose to take a voluntary knee against Joe Joyce during a fight – as people labelled him a ‘quitter’.
Dubois’ decision to step out of the ring after sustaining a fractured eye socket and nerve damage was defended by fellow Brit Joshua, who told the Sun: “If Daniel needs someone to speak to, he should call me. It is easy for people to criticise from outside the ring – but some people have been out of order. Daniel took a massive risk in taking that fight, as did Joe Joyce. They both knew the dangers and they both put it all on the line.
I hear people talking respectfully about tapping out in MMA fights. Then when a boxer stops because his eyeball is about to fall out, they call him a ‘quitter’ – are they serious?
“Daniel’s time will come. I believe I will fight both him and Joyce. Joyce is underrated. He had a top amateur pedigree and it shows. This is a great time for British heavyweight boxing – it has never been stronger – and those two guys are both a huge part of it.”
Lerena was in agreement with Joshua on Dubois attitude, and admitted that the 26-year-old was justified in protecting his physical health. He said: “When you look back at his fight with Joe Joyce, I don’t think you can call that quitting. I think he had a very serious injury, you know, the man’s got to realise we’re in there to make a living and to get back to our families, and if he felt the injury was limiting his performance then he did what he needed to do.
At the end of the day, I say look where Joyce is now and look where Dubois is. Dubois has surpassed what Joyce has achieved and he’s gone on to do a lot more. He’s in mega fights so it just shows you to never give up. I don’t think he’s a quitter to be honest.”
Lerena also weighed up Dubois’ chances against Joshua, as the 32-year-old added: “Since he beat me, he’s lost to Usyk. He’s overcome adversity – in the fight with me he had to overcome adversity getting off the canvas and rallying back to beat me.
He overcame adversity there, he fought Usyk in a fight that many thought he beat him with a body shot. Whether it was a body shot or not, who knows, but he overcame adversity again because he got stopped in that fight. He then came back, he beat Jarrell Miller, he smashed Jarrell Miller and he smashed Hrgović.
“And to be honest, I thought when he fought Hrgović, I genuinely thought Daniel Dubois will beat him, but I didn’t think [he would beat him] like that. He showed a lot of grit and he’s come into himself.”
Dubois and Joshua are set to face off on Saturday, September 21 at Wembley Stadium for the IBF world heavyweight title – an hour that Joshua is keen to reclaim after losing his heavyweight titles to Oleksandr Usyk.
