Frank Warren spoke of his pride in seeing Daniel Dubois prove his doubters wrong with a career-best win over the controversial Jarrell Miller.
Dubois was returning to the ring for the first time following his ninth-round stoppage defeat in his unified heavyweight title challenge against Oleksandr Usyk in August with lots of pressure on his shoulders.
Pundits suggested that if he had fallen to defeat, it could have been curtains on the career of the 26-year-old Briton.
But Dubois claimed a 10th and final round stoppage of Miller in the dying embers of the round following an assault of punches and with Miller unable to defend himself or fight back.
Dubois had been forced to dig deep following mid-round troubles where he looked jaded, which allowed Miller to land several left-right hook combinations.
However, Dubois got his second wind, seemed revitalised in round seven, and negated the almost 100-pound weight difference between himself and Miller to produce the final round stoppage.
Post-fight, Warren beamed with pride.
“He [Dubois] certainly did bounce back,” said Warren. “He has had back-to-back camps and came back quick after the loss in the fight for the world title against Usyk. Usually, a guy would take a little time out after that, but I got him to focus on getting back in there [fighting] as soon as possible.
“I didn’t want him to lose his confidence or have a long battle back but this one [fighting Miller] he got in there, gritted his teeth and came through and did what he had to do. At one stage, I pulled his dad into the corner as I saw him looking for his dad a few times.”
Warren felt that Dubois had answered his critics and shown he could do fight when the going got tough.
“In himself, he knows he is capable and showed it in there,” Warren went on. “It was a tough fight for both guys, and it takes two to make a fight like that. Jarrell Miller certainly came to fight and was very confident and I knew he thought he could win the fight.
“Sometimes you’ve got to find those performances within yourself,” Warren added. “He certainly did that tonight and found out that he could do it. He did it in some ways the hard way. If he had kept behind the jab, he might have been able to do things easier in there. At times he was using his jab and other times he was trading with him, going toe-to-toe and throwing bombs at each other. The finish, though, was classic Daniel Dubois. If he catches you and you find yourself in trouble, he will finish you.”
