Fast Results from London: Dubois Bombs Out Gorman; Joyce W 12 Jennings

In December of 2015, Anthony Joshua, then 14-0, and Dillian Whyte, 16-0, met at the O2 Arena in London in a rare meeting of undefeated heavyweights at this juncture of their respective careers. Tonight’s show at the O2 harked to that event and was even juicier as it was a doubleheader.

The match that attracted the most buzz was the all-British showdown between Nathan Gorman, who just turned 23, and 21-year-old Daniel Dubois. “The two fighters could very easily have circled each other in a “will they or won’t they?’ for years to come,” said Kieran Spratt in The Sportsman, “….and who could blame them? It’s what the majority of heavyweights seem intent on doing these days.”

The odds, 8/5 favoring Dubois, suggested that this would be a very competitive fight but, to the contrary, Dubois blew away Gorman inside five one-sided rounds.

Although you wouldn’t know it from Gorman’s physique, he is light on his feet and the expectation was that he would have more gas in his tank if he could extend his former amateur stablemate into the late rounds. But he elected to trade with Dubois from the get-go and paid the price.

Both fighters started out throwing heavy shots with those of Dubois landing with more telling effect. In round two, Gorman, who was accompanied to the ring by his distant cousin, Tyson Fury, suffered a bad gash over his left eye. In the following round, Dubois knocked him down with a pair of rights and for a moment it didn’t appear that Gorman would survive the round.

In round four, Gorman actually had a few good moments, but one could sense that Dubois was measuring him for the finisher. It came in the next round. Knocked to the canvas by a straight right hand, Gorman managed to get to his feet but was in no condition to continue and the fight was waived off. The official time was 2:41 of round five.

Dubois, who carried 239 pounds on his six-foot-five frame, improves to 12-0 (11 KOs) and leaves with the coveted Lonsdale belt. Gorman, who had never been knocked down as a pro, let alone stopped, falls to 16-1.

Longtime British boxing writer Jeff Powell, the well-respected scribe for the Daily Mail, was impressed: “Britain not only has a new holder of the British title,” says Powell, “but a future world heavyweight champion.”

Joyce vs Jennings

Entering tonight’s fight, Joe Joyce hadn’t answered the bell for more than eight rounds while winning all nine of his pro fights by stoppage. Tonight, he was extended the full 12 by cagey veteran Bryant Jennings in a rather dull fight.

It didn’t start out that way. Joyce landed several good shots in the opening round and was hurt by hard punch to the body, arguably Jennings’ best punch of the night. But the fight quickly devolved into a ho-hum affair.

At the final bell, there was little doubt that Joyce (10-0, 9 KOs) would get the nod as he had been the busier fighter, but the scores, save for the 115-112 tally, struck most observers as too wide. The other judges had it 118-109 and 117-110. There were no knockdowns, but Jennings (24-4) had a point deducted in the 10^th round for an apparent low blow.

This was not a good showing by the six-foot-six Joyce, a 2016 Olympic silver medalist, as he outweighed Jennings by 30 pounds and went to post a consensus 6 ½-to-1 betting favorite. However, Philadelphia’s Jennings, a former world title challenger, has a style that isn’t calculated to make his opponents look good.

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Also, BBBofC British middleweight champion Liam Williams (21-2-1, 16 KOs) scored a second round TKO over Karim Achour (27-6-3). Williams, a Welshman whose lone defeats came at the hands of Liam Smith, wasn’t expected to have much trouble with the feather-fisted Frenchman but this was yet a nice feather in his cap as Achour, who went 12 with hard-hitting David Lemieux, hadn’t previously been stopped.

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