Eddie Hearn blames Anthony Joshua’s ‘inexperience’ for reaction to Daniel Dubois’ illegal punch

Daniel Dubois retained his IBF title in style putting a beating on the former unified champion, Anthony Joshua.

Joshua was knocked out in the fifth round in front of 98,128 fans at Wembley Stadium by the 27-year-old Brit.

Eddie Hearn has criticised Anthony Joshua for not stopping his fight with Daniel Dubois after taking a low blow in round 4.

Referee Marcus McDonnell stepped in and issued a warning to Dubois but Joshua did not offer any sort of protest as McDonnell then signalled for the contest to continue.

As stated by the rules Joshua was entitled to take a 5 minute break to recover but Hearn believes he made an error by not making more of the foul.

Following Joshua’s defeat he said:

‘People always question people’s heart, even the last knockout he’s scrambling to get up, he couldn’t have tried another inch and that’s all you can give to people.

‘I think when you do that you can look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘I might not have been good enough tonight but I’ve tried my nuts off and I gave everything’.

‘I spoke to him last night and he said, ‘I’m ready to go in the trenches tomorrow night’, he went all the way in the trenches.

‘People talk about him taking the knee, spitting a gumshield out, listen, when Daniel Dubois hit him in the nuts in the third or fourth round, I’m screaming at AJ to take the full five minutes.

‘That’s actually a little bit of inexperience [from Joshua]. At that point when he couldn’t stand up, he’s been hit full blown in the conkers, all he’s got to do to the ref is [say] but that’s not him.

‘He just went to the ref, ‘I’m fine, come on, let’s go’. I’m like, ‘no, no, what are you doing?’. And then it happened again because he just came to fight tonight.

‘When you talk about entertainment, maybe vulnerability, but also a huge puncher who’s prepared to let his hands go.

‘It was a hell of a fight, hell of a fight, and as gutted as we are Daniel deserves a lot of credit because tonight was his crowning night. Not being elevated to interim champion, tonight was the night I believe he became a real world champion.’

More Stories / Fight Corner