Daniel Dubois gave Billy Joe Saunders some magnanimous support after his defeat to Saul ‘Canelo’ Saunders.
Saunders criticised Dubois for his most recent fight against Joe Joyce, when the 23-year-old suffered a fractured orbital bone and elected to take a knee and give his rival a win by knockout.
The former WBO champion said: “If my two eye sockets were broken, my jaw was broken, my teeth were out, my nose was smashed, my brain was beaten, I was not stopping until I was knocked out or worse. I don’t agree with a man taking the knee and letting the ref count him out.
“Fighters get in that ring and we know what’s on the line. Every fighter needs to understand and the fans need to understand that.
“In the past, we’ve seen a lot of tragedies in boxing, deaths in the ring. Before I go on one knee I’d like to go out on my back with my pulse stopped.”
On Saturday in his fight against Canelo, Saunders was not allowed back to action in the ninth round after the Mexican delivered an uppercut that broke the Briton’s own orbital bones, and obscured his vision.
While Chris Eubank Jr was in an uncharitable mood after the result, Dubois instead tweeted: “You fought well @bjsaunders_ hope your eye heels [sic] up quickly and you can come back stronger champ.”
Dubois returns to action on June 5 to fight Bogdan Dinu for the WBA interim championship, which may give him the chance to fight either Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury when the dust settles on their two-bout deal.