Kieran Farrell reflects on Daniel Dubois’ epic win over Anthony Joshua at the weekend
Kieran Farrell: “The landlord got dealt with!”
Daniel Dubois (22-2, 21KO) shocked the 96,000 fans in attendance at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night as he dismantled and destroyed ex-world champion Anthony Joshua (28-4, 25KO) in five rounds.
In his last three fights Dubois has knocked out 333lbs Jarrell Miller, undefeated Filip Hrgovic, and now two-time unified world champion Joshua, to make him a strong contender for ‘Fighter of the Year’.
Assistant to head trainer Don Charles, Kieran Farrell, was brought in earlier this year to strengthen the team for Dubois’ fight with Filip Hrgovic in June.
Speaking to SecondsOut, Farrell reflected on the build-up to the mega-fight, “To be honest, we had no pressure on us at all really. Everyone thought Daniel Dubois was getting banged out; we was, I was, everyone as a team – me, Don, his dad – we was all confident in what Daniel can do, and we knew we was gonna win.”
Prior to the fight, DDD’s team avoided most interviews, opting to keep their plans close to their chest, “We was just all about the business, I don’t want to give no sort of game away, because people try to extract little things from what you say, and if you ask me a question like, ‘You got watch out for AJ’s right hand’, and if I start delving into that, I could give the game away a little bit.”
The likeable Lancashire lad then revealed how he believes Team Dubois was able to get the win, despite being a 6/1 underdog, “We was always quietly confident and we done the business last night. I’ve got a message, I can show it to ya, I said rounds 4-8. And I said I wouldn’t be surprised if he [AJ] went in the first.
“Daniel Dubois is different, but look at his record [95% KO ratio]. He’s touched my chin with the same shot he got Joshua with in the first round – the overhand right – I’m not paying attention and he’s got me on the chin and oh my god! My legs stiffened up. I walked out with my hands up like a zombie!”
Dubois dropped AJ in four of the five rounds on September 21 and Farrell delved into what made the difference, “If you watch Daniel Dubois last night, his foot movement was great! We’ve seen that Joshua was gonna look for the step back, bang-bang. He’s gonna walk him into it, that’s what he’s trying to do. So Joshua thinks he’s gonna go, so he steps back and cocks the backhand, but we’re not there. So we’re feinting or we’re going in and back out, and back in.
When Kieran Farrell first joined the team, he identified Dubois’ lack of head movement as something to work on, which paid off on fight night, he revealed, “His head movement, that was the no.1 [weakness]. I respect Don massively, he’s such a knowledgeable guy. I looked at Daniel and he just comes in in straight lines, and his head’s always there, it’s not there [to the side] or there [moving], it’s just always there [to be hit].
“Whatever everyone will tell you about the pads what I do, I don’t stand still, I’m there or there or there, I move around because if you imitate the fight, you’re never gonna stand there on the spot, even if you’re at heavyweight, it’s never just static.”
Farrell shared his exact thoughts after the first knockdown in the opening round, “I knew that it could be anytime, but then a wounded animal is at its most dangerous. We had to be careful, we had to stick to the gameplan, with his feet and his hands up. Because AJ caught him with the backhand [in round five], and when he caught him Daniel was then the injured animal and that’s when we got him. AJ was thinking ‘I’ve got to close the show here now’ and as he did that, boom, he walked into it.”
Farrell then broke the fight down into more detail, “It was clear to see what he [AJ] was going to do because how the last few fights played out, because Daniel got caught with about 4-5 backhands in the first three rounds of the Hrgovic fight; AJ knocked a guy out – Ngannou – with a clean backhand, so we knew the one shot they were gonna be looking for.
“And I was talking to Francis Warren yesterday [before the fight] and he said, ‘Maybe they’re gonna look for the left hook cos Daniel likes to put his head down for the right hand, so we took his head off-line, you don’t keep your head static to get caught, when you’re throwing the backhand you bring your head off-line. You watch that shot he knocked him out with, it’s there.”
In round three, Dubois had AJ trapped, who eventually was held up by the ropes and issued an eight-count. At one moment, because he wasn’t firing back, it looked like referee Marcus McDonnell was ready to step in to stop the fight, instead he waited for AJ to take a knee, saving him for another round in the opinion of many onlookers.
“If he did that [stopped the fight], it would have been controversial. I’m glad the way it all worked out, I’ll be honest, it couldn’t have gone any better.
“Daniel Dubois is just getting started, he’s 27-years-old. As a heavyweight, he’s a baby. He could be the ruler of the division for the next five years, you just don’t know, this is boxing. Daniel Dubois is a wrecking machine, he can go through anyone like a hot knife through butter!”
There is a rematch clause in the contract, so Joshua could trigger that at any time, but Farrell is hoping that won’t happen, “They’re saying about a rematch clause but that’s the worst thing, because you’ve got a young guy, who knows his bangs are out now, and he’s only going to get better, he hasn’t even hit his prime yet. He’s a dangerous guy.
“What I would advise AJ to do, I think AJ vs Deontay Wilder is probably the best shout for his next fight. I know that Daniel wants to get redemption on Usyk. I weren’t part of that team at the time, but the team is strong now, we’ve got a complete team, we’re ready. With my own addition, with the way Daniel is boxing now, and we’ve got everything in control, so I think we now beat Usyk.”
‘Viscous’ Farrell is a former Central Area lightweight champion, who retired in 2012 after suffering a bleed on the brain in his last fight with Anthony Crolla.
Now 34, Farrell was awarded a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s birthday honours in 2016 for his work in his local area of Heywood.
Farrell disclosed what he brings to the team, “Apart from the youth, the positive energy, my boxing knowledge, I just know that I can teach fighters great things. You only have to look on my Instagram to my working with an eight-year-old kid, that’s because we work hard. As a coach, I wanted to start from the bottom, at The People’s Gym in Manchester, and we got a schoolboy champion, a junior champion, a youth champion; I’ve got a European gold medallist, I got a World medallist…
“Training has always being my forte, I look up to Joe Gallagher and stuff like that. If I can, in the future, maybe have a stable of fighters. I like to work with a few, I’ve got a handful of fighters at the minute and that’s it.”