Just winning was never going to be enough for Daniel Dubois.
The mission from the moment he signed on to participate on the ‘Day of Reckoning’ mega card was to prove to the world that there was still plenty of life left in his promising career. London’s Dubois found the perfect antagonist in Brooklyn’s Jarrell Miller, whom he dominated for much of the night en route to a tenth-round stoppage Saturday evening in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
A landslide points win was easily within reach but the former WBA ‘Regular’ titlist opted to instead close the show. It was a message sent to dispel the theory that he quits at the first sign of trouble, as was suggested after his knockout defeats to Joe Joyce and—most recently—WBA/IBF/WBO/IBO heavyweight titlist Oleksandr Usyk.
“That was a step in the right direction,” Dubois said of his mission during a post-fight media scrum. “I didn’t need to just prove it to them but prove it to myself. That was the main thing. I needed this.
“We wanted a knockout. We trained for that. I’m pleased to get that victory.”
Dubois (20-2, 19KOs) even stepped out of character during an entertaining fight week.
Miller (26-1-1, 22KOs) will go down as a chronic underachiever but his trash-talk has remained next level. Dubois verbally fired a warning shot towards Miller during the final pre-fight press conference, and even shrugged off a post weigh-in shove from his oversized adversary to honor every pre-fight promise with the performance he put forth.
“I think I’ve got a friend for life now,” Dubois quipped of Miller, who was genuinely congratulatory in defeat. “Big Baby, we move on and we’re friends for life now.”
The win was redemptive for Dubois, who insists that Saturday night was far from the finished product. Still, it was miles ahead of the fighter who fell apart in the biggest opportunity of his career four months ago.
“I had a lot of things going on in my life and in my head that I needed to sort out,” noted Dubois. “Tonight was part of that redemption and recovery process. We still had to win and that’s what we did.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. X (formerly Twitter): @JakeNDaBox