Daniel Dubois: Frampton takes aim at heavyweight’s team after two-word message in corner | Boxing | Sport

Former world champion Carl Frampton has taken aim at Daniel Dubois’ trainer, Shane McGuigan, following a chaotic but brief fight with Kevin Lerena. The Brit eventually came out on top, but only after Dubois concerningly asked his team ‘what happened’ after going to the canvas three times in Round 1. 

Dubois went into Saturday’s bout, on the undercard of Tyson Fury vs Derek Chisora, as a heavy odds-on favourite to beat his South African opponent. Before the scrap got underway, both fighters had only one loss on their record but Dubois had been in with higher quality opponents. 

The fight didn’t go according to script early on as a blow to the heard appeared to scramble Dubois’ senses, while it also triggered an issue in his knee and sent him to ground. To the confusion of those watching on, the 25-year-old went down twice more under no significant pressure from Lerena and he was saved by the bell. 

He dug deep to steady the ship in the second round and come out with a knockout victory in the third, however, forcing the referee to step in after unleashing a barrage of punches on Lerena. 

DON’T MISS: Daniel Dubois swears twice live on BT Sport and set for injury scan after Kevin Lerena KO

Following confirmation of Dubois’ comeback victory, former two-weight world champion Frampton recounted to BT Sport: “Dubois said, ‘What happened?’ Clearly concussed, didn’t know what was going on… For me that looked like a corner who didn’t have the fighter’s best interests at heart.”

Many were not surprised to see Frampton firing shots in trainer McGuigan’s direction due to the pair’s history. Frampton became a two-weight world champion under McGuigan’s guidance, before they split in 2017 and became caught up in a high-profile legal battle.