Eddie Hearn weighs in on Anthony Joshua's reaction to Daniel Dubois' low blow: "He went all the way to the trenches"

Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn commended Anthony Joshua's fighting spirit after 'AJ's' recent defeat against Daniel Dubois. On Sept. 21, Joshua challenged Dubois for the IBF heavyweight title and was a betting favorite heading into the contest. However, Dubois took control from the opening bell and dominated the fight before knocking Joshua out in the fifth round.

As Joshua appeared to be struggling to keep Dubois off him, a low blow from the champion paused the action momentarily in Round 4. 'AJ' refused to take a timeout to recover and the pair resumed fighting.

While speaking at the post-fight press conference, Hearn implied that a timeout could have allowed Joshua to make the fight more competitive:

"I spoke to [Joshua] last night and he said, 'I'm ready to go to the trenches tomorrow night.' It went all the way to the trenches. People talk about taking a knee, and spitting a gum shield out. Listen, when Daniel Dubois hit him in the n*ts, in the third or fourth round, I'm screaming at AJ to take the full five minutes. That's actually a little bit of inexperience."

He added:

"At that point, when he couldn't stand up - he's been hit full-blown in the conquers, right? All he's got to do is go to the ref. But that's not him. He just went to the ref, 'I'm fine. Come on, let's go.' I'm like, 'No, no... What are you doing?' And then it happened again. Because he just came to fight tonight."

Check out Eddie Hearn's comments below (3:56):

The loss against Dubois was the fourth title fight defeat of Joshua's professional boxing career. He has never lost a non-title bout so far. Some have called for the 34-year-old's retirement after the lackluster performance. However, speaking at the post-fight press conference, Joshua said that he will "live to fight another day."