Leicester Arena, Leicester - Hot heavyweight prospect Daniel Dubois (9-0, 8 KOs) face his most experienced opponent to date, and was forced to go the full ten round distance with world title challenger and division veteran Kevin Johnson (32-11, 16 KOs). The sole score from the referee was 100-91.
Coming in, Johnson had lost his last two bouts - a decision loss to Andy Ruiz in July and a decision loss to Petar Milas in March. But prior to that, in October 2017, he knocked out Francesco Pianeta, who recently went the distance with Tyson Fury.
For Dubois, this is his third fight of the year - with a fifth round knockout of Tom Little in June and a third round knockout of DL Jones in February. He was a chief sparring partner for Alexander Povetkin, for the Russian fighter's recent challenge of unified champion Anthony Joshua.
At the start of the first round, Dubois came out firing with both hands in the first round. He was pinning Johnson against the ropes and unloading with combinations. Johnson was not doing much of anything. No shots were being thrown in return, with Johnson just covering up and being defensive.
Dubois was most patient at the start of the second, working hs jab to set up bigger punches. Johnson was being very cautious, staying defensive and covering up to snuff the incoming punches.
Johnson was absorbing a lot of punches in the third. Dubois was doing his best to get to the target, but it was hard to land clean with Johnson just covering up and not throwing back. It was more of the same in the fourth, with Dubois doing almost all of the throwing and Johnson on the defensive. And the course of action was identical in the fifth and sixth.
In the seventh, Johnson picked up the pace but still saw himself get outworking and out punched. Johnson went back to being more defensive in the eight and ninth, as Dubois was trying to crack through with big shots. Johnson was rattled by several uppercuts in the closing moments. The tenth and final round saw Dubois control the tempo from start to finish, with Johnson looking to survive.