Without this change, and without the safety net provided by controversy (bad scorecards, bad officiating, etcetera), the only person to blame for a defeat is the boxer, the one who felt it. That, for any boxer at any level, is a scary thought to consider, so most of them do all they can to avoid it. It’s why a coach often gets kicked to the curb whenever a high-profile boxer loses and why few boxers elect to keep things the same following a setback. It’s also why news of Daniel Dubois splitting from Don Charles following Dubois’ defeat against Oleksandr Usyk last month came as no surprise. Dubois, after all, is just the latest boxer coming to terms with a very public defeat and now figuring out how to frame the defeat to give him the best chance of rebounding from it. He is young enough, at 27, to still dream of becoming world heavyweight champion, but knows that he can only get there if he first convinces himself that something went wrong against Usyk and that, with a slight tweak here or there, things could have been different. He has, in his mind, now made that necessary tweak by getting rid of Don Charles, his coach, and joining up with Tony Sims, the next one. This, in theory, will allow Dubois to experience new surroundings, new ideas, and something of a restart. Better yet, it removes the temptation to look inward and reflect.Â
