Daniel Dubois (15-0, 14 KOs) successfully defended his WBO International heavyweight title in defeating Ricardo Snijders (18-2, 8 KOs) by a second-round knockout on Saturday night at the BT Sport Studios in London. Before it was over, Dubois had knocked the 26-year-old Snijders down four titles.
The first three knockdowns occurred in round one, and then fourth and final knockdown came in round two. Referee Marcus McDonnell stopped the fight after Snijders. He could have let the fight continue, but it would have been pointless.
Snijders was too light at 215 lbs to compete with the 242 lb Dubois, and he didn’t have the power to hang around.
The fight resembled a match between a rehydrated cruiserweight in Snijders trying to compete with a large heavyweight in 6’5″ Dubois. It wasn’t a fair fight from the opening seconds of the contest in round one.
In the first knockdown in round one, Dubois hit Snijders with a left to the body after trapping him in the corner. The shot caused Snijders to lean forward. Once he did that, Snijders was nailed by a right hand to the head that dropped him.
In the second knockdown, Dubois pulled down on Snijders’ head and then hit him with a right-hand rabbit punch. Moments later, Dubois shoved Snijders to the canvas for the third knockdown of the round.
Needless to say, neither of the last two knockdowns should have counted. Dubois was too excited to focus on his form and was bum-rushing the poor Snijders and throwing him around like a ragdoll while the referee MacDonnell watching and giving him credit for bogus knockdowns.
In round two, Dubois backed Snijders up against the ropes and dropped him with a hard left to the body. Snijders got back to his feet, but the referee stopped it anyway.
For the viewers at home, you would have liked the fight to have been allowed to continue until the bitter end. The referee stopped it way too soon, and it wasn’t a good ending. With the pandemic going on, boxing fans need to get their money’s worth, and you don’t want to have a referee blowing calls and stopping the fights too early.
The official time of the stoppage was at 0:20 of round two. Dubois wins and he moves to his heavyweight clash against Joe Joyce on October 24. That fight should be a heck of a lot more interesting than tonight’s mismatch, I hope.
“I wanted to go out and try and impress, and the only way I could do that is to try and take him out straight away,” said Dubois after the fight. “I had to relax and hold back a bit and box my way back into it. I was then able to get it easily.
“You don’t get paid for overtime in this game. I was on a mission. I wanted to get rid of the cobwebs and get back into it, and now I feel like I’ve done that.”
Other fights on tonight’s Dubois vs. Snijders card:
- Undefeated 115-contender Sunny Edwards (15-0, 4 KOs) beat Thomas Essomba (10-6, 4 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision. The scores were 115-112, 117-112, and 117-111. Edwards stays in the running for a title shot against IBF super flyweight champion Jerwin Ancasjas.
- Sam Maxwell (14-0, 11 KOs) successfully defended his WBO European 140-lb title in beating Joe Hughes (17-6-1, 7 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision. The scores were f 98-92, 97-94, 97-94.
