Daniel Dubois' boxing career could have been over, eye specialist says

An eye specialist has told Daniel Dubois he could have suffered career-ending double vision had he not quit in the 10th round of his heavyweight fight against Joe Joyce last weekend, Frank Warren has said.

“His consultant is Miss Vickie Lee and her diagnosis was that he had ‘left medial orbital fractures’,” Warren, Dubois’ promoter, said late on Saturday. He added that Lee, the consultant ophthalmic surgeon at Charing Cross, Central Middlesex and Northwick Park hospitals, had advised that “it was fortunate the fight was stopped when he sustained a fracture, otherwise there was a risk of further trauma, and it could cause more orbital tissues and extra ocular muscles that move the eyeball to be entrapped into fractured fragments and cause potentially career-ending double vision”.

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Speaking on BT Sport shortly after another of his prospects, Anthony Yarde, dropped a close points decision to the Commonwealth light-heavyweight champion, Lyndon Arthur, at Church House in London, Warren said: “There was [also] bleeding of the retina. So he basically risked a detached retina. He did the right thing.

“He was obviously in a lot of pain at the time. He fought on quite bravely with his eye closed for a couple of rounds. I don’t want to take anything away from Joe, because Joe is obviously the one who caused the damage, and he boxed quite brilliantly. As Daniel said, the better man won on the night. Some had Daniel up, some had Joe. But the bottom line is Joe won it.

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“But the controversy, some of it was totally uncalled for. That’s after-the-event stuff. The immediate reaction when you see someone do that, you obviously think: ‘Oh, he doesn’t fancy it.’ And I understand that.

“But you don’t then go calling people liars, some people saying: ‘There’s nothing wrong with him. It’s a lie.’ I don’t want to see a boxer getting blinded and ruining his career – and his life, by the way – by being too brave.

“What do you expect of your boxer? Frank Bruno, when he turned professional, he had to go to Colombia [for retinal surgery] before he could even fight. And he ended up at the end of his career not being able to fight any more because there was a problem with his eye. There’s quite a big list, lots of them.”

On Dubois’s immediate future, Warren said: “The MRIs he’s had, they are what they are, but regarding the actual swelling – which has taken a while [to go down] – that’s why it’s taken a little bit longer to get a diagnosis. He’s seen the doctor three times this week.

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“What’s going to happen next, he’s going to rest, and he’s going to be out of action for a while until he heals. Hopefully he’ll come back. In the meantime, Joe will fight early next year in a big fight. The winner will move forward, and Daniel when he comes back, we’ll get him moving again. They both deserve it. They put up a fantastic fight.”