Tony Bellew questions the heart of Daniel Dubois

As talkSPORT looks back at Oleksandr Usyk’s knockout win over Daniel Dubois in their rematch over the weekend, Tony Bellew joins the chat and breaks down why he thinks Dubois is a clear front-runner who chose not carry on in the fight and why he has important questions to ask himself going forward.

“The writing was on the wall the minute [Usyk] landed the first strong jab in the first round,” Bellew said. “Daniel Dubois is a brilliant fighter on the front foot…when things are going his way and he’s landing punches, he’s an absolute nightmare for anybody, as we’ve seen in the AJ fight. But the minute you start to maneuver around him, make him miss a couple of times and make him pay by the way, he starts doubting himself, he starts feeling sorry for himself.

“And I’m sorry to use these words. This isn’t my opinion, guys. This is fact. This is the third time now. And he starts looking for a way, and he just fell apart if I’m being totally honest. The first knockdown is a strong jab. And then the second knockdown, when it comes, I just feel he’s on the floor looking at the referee. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a heavy backhand over the top, and he’s on the floor and he’s a bit dazed at first and by the time he gets to three or four he’s clearly looking at that referee and he’s not getting up.

“It was a look of a fighter — I think the question he needs to answer is ‘why am I doing this? Who am I doing this for and why am I doing it?’ Because if he’s doing it for himself, believe you me guys, he gets up. I got hit with the same shots off Usyk and I was on my back flat and by the count of six I was up on my feet and thankfully for me the referee stopped it and saved my life because I wanted to carry on.

“What you seen in Daniel on Saturday was a fighter who takes a really heavy shot, doesn’t want to get up, guys…When he gets into these really hard moments in fights, that’s when the real Daniel comes out and the real Daniel doesn’t want to fight.”