IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois shocked the world last weekend at Wembley Stadium, dominating two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and knocking him down four times. Despite being written off by many, the Greenwich native defied the odds, delivering a performance that few saw coming, and won the fight via a 5th-round knockout. 

This one fight has propelled the 27-year-old among the heavyweight elites, as new doors to bigger fights have opened up to him. However, that’s not the only consequence of his victory. In the wake of the shocking bout—where Joshua was made to look like an amateur—fans couldn’t stop buzzing about the knockdowns. The chatter intensified after Boxing Kingdom shared an image of Joshua mid-fight, showing him twisting his ankle, adding fuel to the post-fight discussions.

What caused Anthony Joshua to twist his ankle?

A day after the fight, Boxing Kingdom took to X to share the now-viral photo, captioning it, “Anthony Joshua’s ankle seemed damaged towards the end of the fight last night.” The moment in question occurred during the third round when a relentless barrage of punches from Dubois forced Joshua against the ropes.

Despite absorbing the initial blows, Joshua lost his balance while retreating, causing his ankle to slightly twist. However, the minor twist didn’t seem to affect him immediately. Dubois pressed on with his relentless attack, driving Joshua to bend over and sit against the ropes before eventually collapsing onto the canvas.

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The same sort of performance would continue to the fifth round when Joshua showed a sudden burst of energy, lunging straight at Dubois and rocking him. However, seeing the desperate last-ditch effort from the two-time unified champion, Dubois ended the fight with a huge shot to the chin, leaving Joshua to crumble onto the canvas, in front of a record crowd of 96,000. 

Regardless, when fans discovered the image on X, they expressed their opinions in the comment section. 

Fans praise Daniel Dubois’ punch

Dubois had already won over many fans before the first punch was thrown, making a statement with his entrance. Draped in a custom black towel, and shoes with no socks reminiscent of Mike Tyson‘s iconic walkouts, he exuded the same no-nonsense intensity that set the tone for the fight. Nonetheless, reacting to ankle damage claims from Boxing Kingdom, this user highlighted the damage Joshua took somewhere else. “Same happened to his jaw,” the user wrote. It’s unlikely the small incident damaged Joshua’s ankle as he continued to fight despite it. 

The next user had a similar idea, claiming Joshua’s wobbly legs, and the twist was the result of repeated shots to the noggin. “Yeah his leg control was damaged due to repeated head trauma,” the user commented. A heavy punch to the face often disorients a fighter, causing a brief moment of loss of control over their body.

Another fan highlighted an interesting point, which has become a sort of conspiracy theory. The user wrote, “He stumbled walking in.” This is true—if you look at Joshua’s ring walk, he did stumble slightly while entering the stadium, but that might have been because of an uneven floor/carpeting rather than anything else. 

Someone else didn’t seem bothered by Joshua’s stumble. The user remarked, “Your boy took one hell of a beat and it was beautiful to see.” The whole stadium, packed with boxers and fans, was shocked to see this massive fight unfold the way it did.

One user compared Joshua getting imbalanced to a dance move. “Yep that punch had him dancing,” the user quipped. In fact, after the final knockdown, Joshua wasn’t even able to get up on his own, and his trainer Ben Davison had to jump in the ring to help him. 

That said, while Daniel Dubois has made himself a force to be reckoned with, many are claiming Anthony Joshua’s time in boxing has come to an end. Do you agree with that after what happened to Joshua? Or do you think there’s more fight left in ‘AJ’?