[Video] Daniel DuBois’s Overhand Right Ends Gorman in Five, Claims British Heavyweight Title

In a crossroads fight between two undefeated heavyweight prospects, Daniel DuBois overwhelmed Nathan Gorman with physicality and athleticism to score two knockdowns in route to a decisive fifth-round TKO Saturday night at the O2 Arena.

After a quiet opening round, this one turned became a story of “controlled chaos” where each man had short, unpredictable bursts of wild power shots. Neither man was particularly accurate, often flailing at each other without looking at their target. But DuBois held several key advantages in these exchanges — he usually got off first and scored more since he incorporated body shots on the stationary Gorman’s body.

After opening a cut above Gorman’s left eye in the second, DuBois put him down in the third with a overhand right. To Gorman’s credit, he went toe to toe with DuBois in the final minutes and landed enough to stall his foe’s finishing attempts.

But with Gorman failing to establish his jab and being too slow to effectively counter off the back foot, it was only a matter of time before DuBois landed another devastating overhand right. That moment came in the fifth and Gorman again tasted the canvas. He rose on unsteady legs and the fight was called off at the 2:41 mark.

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I was impressed with how DuBois never let Gorman get comfortable nor establish any consistent offense. Questions remain about DuBois’s chin — not due to him getting seriously hurt at any point, but because he tends to get in wild exchanges. We’ve yet to see how he’ll react when a big puncher nails him with a clean counter shot. If he proves to have an iron beard or quick recuperative powers then sky’s the limit.

One thing no longer up for debate is that he’s miles ahead of Joe Joyce, who won a suspect unanimous decision over Bryant Jennings on this card. It wasn’t the fact Joyce won, it was the lopsided nature of two cards (118-109, 117-110) that showed Jennings had no chance at a fair shake on Joyce’s home turf. Despite both Joyce and DuBois having two years of pro experience, Joyce is much too slow and uncoordinated to challenge his British peer anytime soon.

Should promoter Frank Warren hold off the Joyce fight, it’s a no-brainer to set up his young champion against either the old lion Dereck Chisora, or the winner of the July 20 match-up between David Allen and David Price.