Daniel Dubois turned pending defeat into victory on Saturday. Quickly.
The heavyweight contender survived three first-round knockdowns to stop Kevn Lerena at the end of Round 3 in a wild heavyweight fight on the Tyson Fury-Derek Chisora card at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium night in London.
The left-handed Lerena (28-2, 14 KOs) hurt Dubois (19-1, 18 KOs) with a left to the top of the head in the opening round, which put Dubois down for the first time. The Londoner, apparently still dazed and unable to defend himself, then intentionally went down two more times.
The 25-year-old contender was in serious trouble. However, Lerena failed to take advantage of his opponent’s condition, instead boxing carefully.
That allowed Dubois time to regain his footing and storm back. In the final round, Dubois put Lerena down and hurt him with a straight right. The South African was able to get up but collapsed under a barrage of followup punches near the end of the round, prompted the referee to stop the fight.
Dubois has now won four consecutive fights since he was stopped by Joe Joyce in the 10th round in November 2020.
Lerena, a former cruiserweight, hadn’t lost a fight since 2014. This was the 30-year-old’s fourth fight as a full-fledged heavyweight.
