Daniel Dubois Revealed To Have Torn ACL

WBA secondary heavyweight champ Daniel Dubois will be out of action for awhile after confirmation that what looked like a leg injury in his last title defense December 3rd is in fact a torn ACL in his right knee.

Dubois suffered the injury against Kevin Lerena at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on the undercard of Tyson Fury’s TKO win over Derek Chisora. The injury happened in the opening round, when Lerena caught Dubois with a hard shot to the top of the head.

The hulking Dubois buckled and appeared to injury his right leg before going down. He later went down twice more in the opening frame without a punch having landed. He then could be heard telling trainer Shane McGuigan in between rounds that he had done something to the leg.

Dubois persevered on and actually stopped Lerena, while on the bad leg, with a barrage of punches along the ropes at the end of the third round.

Over the weekend, at the Boxxer Promotions card in Bournemouth, England, former world featherweight champ Barry McGuigan, father of Shane and who founded and is CEO of his own Cyclone Promotions, confirmed the Dubois injury to Pro Boxing Fans Youtube Page,

As he was answering a question of Dubois potentially meeting unified heavyweight champ Oleksandr Usyk in 2023, McGuigan replied,

“Well, it’s interesting. Dan has a tear on his ACL, and as soon as we got the news that he had a tear on his ACL, suddenly he was offered the fight, which he can’t have. He can’t box for six months now anyway because of the repair time,” McGuigan told the show.

“He got hit on top of the head the last time, and when he stepped back he tore his ACL and his balance was very badly affected. He had to come back from adversity and he showed that he could do that. He kept his cool…I don’t think it’s fair to make him fight when he’s unwell, so he’ll need a leave of absence as it were, but he’s ready to fight the top guys.”

Dubois long term injury comes at bad time

Dubois’ win made him a mandatory challenger for Usyk’s WBA title. The Ukrainian also holds the WBO and IBF belts, all that he won off Anthony Joshua in September of 2021 before defending them in August of this year both by decisions. Generally, a full torn/repaired ACL is at least a six month injury, if not nine months rest and rehab time.

So, Dubois, 19-1, 18 KOs, won’t be in the picture to fight anyone until the late Summer at the earliest.

It’s also well known that Usyk wants to meet the WBC champ and lineal titleholder Fury in an undisputed showdown. However, complications are arising for the organizations, as the IBF also wants Usyk to defend against their top fighter, Filip Hrgovic, too.

However, Hrgovic could be given “step aside” money to allow Usyk-Fury to happen, as well.