EASY DOES IT

Dubois wipes out Tetteh but will need more testing opponents

- Declan Warrington

IF the victory over Nathan Gorman represented the night Daniel Dubois established himself as a heavyweight of potentially the highest calibre, his most recent, in the first round over Ebenezer Tetteh at the Royal Albert Hall, demonstrated the extent to which he is ready to be fast-tracked.

The relative gamble of matching him with Gorman is ultimately continuing to deliver, but while it does so the greatest short-term challenge that will confront his promoter Frank Warren and trainer Martin Bowers involves incrementally increasing the quality of his opposition.

The heavyweight division may be more appealing than at any time since Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson finally fought but it remains shallow overall. Therefore, due to the lack of quality ‘gatekeepers’, it forces those pursuing its biggest names to risk significant leaps in ability without the experience they would ideally already have secured.

That the 31-year-old Tetteh, from Accra, Ghana, was and will remain so unremarkable may have influenced Dubois’ demeanour, but the promising 22-year-old carried a confidence absent before the night he stopped Gorman, and to the extent his increasing authority and conviction could mean he may even need to be reined in.

He almost instantly landed a powerful right hand, and when he followed that with a left, Tetteh, previously undefeated, was forced to retreat. Another left to the chin, followed by a left-right combination, was met by an unconvincing smile from the Ghanaian; Dubois then settled into working off a consistent, fluid jab, until another right hand ensured the first knockdown.