Martin Bowers defends Daniel Dubois – and describes quitting comments as “disrespectful”
BY RICHARD CAWLEY
Martin Bowers has hit back at criticism of Daniel Dubois – describing talk that the Greenwich heavyweight quit against Joe Joyce as “disrespectful”.
The 23-year-old South Londoner saw his unbeaten record brought to a halt as an awful eye injury ended his challenge for the vacant European title in the 10th round.
Dubois was leading on two of the three scorecards at the time but dropped to his knee in delayed reaction to Joyce landing a jab on his left eye, which was completely closed.
His trainer Bowers – talking on the 5Live Boxing podcast – said: “I think it’s very sad. For people to be saying things like that [that he quit] is a little bit disrespectful.
“In all fairness Daniel got the injury at either the end of the second round or beginning of the third – I haven’t watched it back yet because I haven’t been in the mood to.
“From the third round onwards he boxed with a bad eye or an injury. He boxed okay but from the third round he wasn’t the same boy that we had before that. If you get an injury to your eye then your depth perception is not the same.
“Once you get an eye injury in a fight it is going to be a problem. Not if it’s bleeding so much, but swelling is going to be a problem because of the potential of it closing.
“I had Daniel in front but I didn’t think he was boxing particularly well. But you get a poke in the eye you get confused – strange things happen. He wasn’t reading Joe’s jab very well and that’s not normally how Daniel fights.
“He can normally handle that – I didn’t see him parrying it away or slipping it much. I don’t want to take anything away from Joe because he did what he had to do.
“When we sent Daniel out for that last round I said to Ray [Bull], who was in the corner with me, ‘we’ve got three rounds left in the fight and only one round left in that eye’. So the next round, come what may, I was pulling him out.
“That is what I was going to do. If he tells me he is okay and he can see then we’ve got a puncher’s chance. “
Bowers could be heard telling Dubois “this is the fight game – and you’re in it” as the bout progressed.
He said: “You’re in real fights and you have to get through that adversity. Things happen and things go wrong – that’s what makes great fighters. Not knocking people over and not just winning all your fights – but how you get through adversity.
“We’ve had lots of great fighters who have come through tough battles, that’s what I was trying to get across to him. Do you want to be one of them? This is what it comes to. It’s brutal. It can be so rewarding and it can be so heartbreaking – it’s that point in time.
“All those boxers that get in the ring are special. They are putting their lives on the line – that’s where that sport takes you.
“My job is to keep them in the fight but my main job is duty of care. You have to save them from themselves. If he tells me from the third round to the ninth he can’t see then I call the referee over and say: ‘We’re out of here’. I never got those messages from Dan but he must have been in a lot of pain from the third onwards.
“I’ve seen Dan spar probably 1,500 rounds. I’ve never seen him box that bad, even though he was winning it’s not him from the third round on.
“If people think he hasn’t got any bottle they are bitter and twisted. Do we want to see kids lose an eye? It is brutal. His depth perception wasn’t right. He’s been around boxing for 12 years and he can’t parry a job? I’ve seen him catch millions of jabs. He still had the heart to keep getting hit with that jab. I can’t say no more.
“He’s going to be heartbroken and we’ve got to bring him back and rebuild – if he wants to. If the doctors allow him to. Our sport is governed by professional people. He’ll have to do quite a few medical exams and rightly so.
“There’s a bit of rebuilding to do but I believe the boy will come back and prove a lot of people wrong.
“There is no way he is a coward or not got it. Everyone who steps in there is putting their lives on the line.”
Bowers was asked if he regretted not pulling Dubois out at the end of the ninth round.
He responded: “No, no, no – there is a battle going on and you are out there to win. You’ve got a puncher giving positive signs that everything is okay with him.
“We’re not making any excuses [about the training camp], why would we? We were in front. We were winning. The boy lost on an injury. Okay, he ate a few jabs – but he never took a beating. He never got hit with a big right hand and beaten up.
“He got beat on an injury, let’s put it in perspective.
“It’s a European title and it’s make-or-break at the moment. You have to give that boy a chance.
“It’s no good people saying he isn’t at that level and it was too early. It wasn’t too early and he is at that level. He was in front in the fight. So we can put that to one side when we do the rebuilding.
“There are a few things we’ll tweak. Have we done this right and that wrong? We have to look at Daniel and ourselves. If the finger is pointed at me, so be it. If the finger is pointed somewhere else, so be it. We’re all big boys.
“Let’s let Joe have his moment in the sun. He’s done a lot for boxing and done well.”
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