Q: Where does your boxing story begin?

DeLuca: It started when I was a kid. I started boxing in a program in downtown Boston. It was more like Dorchester self-defense. It was a miniature neighborhood group that you went to every Saturday, sparring or hitting the bag. But it didn’t last long; I was 10 when they shut it down. Then I moved on.

Q: What initially got you into boxing? It’s always compelling to hear how people got into boxing, considering how hazardous it can be.

DeLuca: My dad boxed on the same show when he was adolescent. He won the Golden Gloves and had a few pro fights. So I guess it was a case of “monkey see, monkey do.” I just followed in his footsteps.

Q: When did you start taking boxing seriously?

DeLuca: When I joined a modern gym, I started competing in Junior Olympics and local tournaments like Silver Gloves. When I was 12, I took it seriously and stayed competitive until I joined the Marines. From age 12 to 19, I was in the amateur circuit.

Q: What made you join the Marines with such a passion for boxing? Was there a turning point?

DeLuca: I think I was at a crossroads. My dad was into boxing, but he wasn’t really interested. I didn’t know if boxing was a real career for me, and I needed to make money. I was always interested in the military, but I also wanted to keep boxing, so I joined the Marine Corps Reserve. After boot camp, I came back and resumed my boxing career.

Q: How demanding is the physical aspect of being a Marine? Does that have anything to do with boxing?

DeLuca: Absolutely. There’s a fitness standard, and there’s a weight standard. In the Marines, you can’t be out of shape, so boxing and military life were pretty similar for me, both mentally and physically.

Q: Are you still committed to your professional career?

DeLuca: No, I retired last year. Now I just train guys.

Q: What are some memorable moments from your career? Any shows that stand out?

DeLuca: Yeah, I remember fighting a guy named Anthony Osbourne from Jamaica. His record was 7-28-1, but just before our fight, he went 10 rounds and beat an older, but still tough, former contender from Jamaica. I hit Osbourne challenging in the first round, but he was a tough, crafty veteran who never let me finish him. That fight really stands out.

Q: Who is the best fighter you have ever fought in the ring, both in sparring and in professional fighting?

DeLuca: Erislandy Lara, Demetrius “Boo Boo” Andrade and Carlos Gongora. The level of relaxation they have in the ring is impressive. It’s like they’re walking in the park, even if you land a good punch. They don’t get nervous. They’re just so mellow and relaxed.

Q: How do you translate your experiences as a player into your role as a coach?

DeLuca: I always had a knack for training, even as a adolescent fighter. The first pro I trained was a friend of mine when I was 16. He was getting back into shape and I helped him win before he retired. That’s when I realized I had a passion for it. After I retired, I started training guys full time and it was a natural progression for me.

Q: What sets you apart as a coach?

DeLuca: I have always been comfortable leading and motivating guys. Even when I was younger, I would lend a hand others in the gym. Now I employ that experience to motivate my fighters. I believe in keeping them motivated through a combination of mental and physical toughness. Being a coach has made the transition from fighting much smoother for me.

Eddie Hearn has revealed details of his ringside altercation with “arrogant f**k” Devin Haney, which was caught on camera on Saturday night.

Hearn and Haney enjoyed a great relationship when the American was a member of the Matchroom stable, but that relationship has deteriorated in recent months.

The situation came to a head over the weekend when Haney tweeted that Hearn had rejected his request for tickets to Saturday’s Riyadh season opener at Wembley Stadium.

However, Haney entered the arena and was booed when he was shown on the gigantic screen. Conor Benn later posted a video on Instagram of Hearn and Haney arguing at ringside.

In an exclusive interview with Boxing News, Hearn revealed what he told his former client.

“It was heated,” Hearn said. “Remember the relationship I have with Devin, remember everything we’ve been through, I couldn’t believe he would just throw it out there on social media.

“I got a text from him at 6 a.m. the day of the fight saying, ‘I need tickets to Joshua.’ He texted me 24 hours before the fight saying, ‘yo,’ but I was so busy I didn’t text him back. When I texted him Friday night, he texted me back Saturday morning asking for tickets.

“First of all, all the tickets for the inner ring were pre-allocated to His Excellency and all those people, and we had a few months to notify our fighters who had made requests, which we reviewed. At that point, we just didn’t have the tickets. So I said, ‘It’s not just our show, we’re just working on the event, you might have to ask Riyadh Season for the tickets.’ I didn’t get a response.

“So I was sitting there at the show and he said, ‘Wow, Eddie Hearn didn’t buy me tickets, he’s so two-faced.’ So I just said, ‘You’re an arrogant, f**king asshole.’ I pulled him up at the show and said, ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ He said, ‘Hey, hey,’ and I said, ‘No, no, hey, hey… what are you doing?’

“I said, ‘First of all, you couldn’t be more arrogant, second of all, why don’t you write to me and ask if I can’t solve something? Instead, you tweet? You’re like a little kid.’

“I said, ‘You used to be a good kid, but now I don’t like this arrogance I see in you. Don’t ever do that again.’ He said I said something about him in the media, but I was just answering a question.

“I don’t represent him, so if someone asks me about Devin Haney, I’ll tell you what I think. I never said anything rude, but I said, ‘You did this, so don’t ever disrespect me again.’

“I was reluctant to do so. I told him directly.”

There are some things in life that a person will only try once and then swear they will never try again: having a baby, getting married, running a marathon, drugs, shoplifting, skydiving, a fistfight, a suicide attempt, love.

There are things in life that you try and then decide to try again: having a baby, getting married, running a marathon, mind-altering drugs, shoplifting, skydiving, a fistfight, a suicide attempt, love.

In boxing, you would think that spending time in the company of Oleksandr Usyk would be considered a one-night stand. However, because the Ukrainian is such an enigma, and people tend to think they can fix things or other people, there is a constant feeling that someone at some point will be able to solve that enigma and defeat the huge left-hander. As a result, both because of that belief and Usyk’s current status in the heavyweight division, the line to fight him is growing. Few in the lineup seem prepared, at the moment, to beat Usyk, but that won’t stop them from believing, nor will it be enough to stop them from lining up and waiting their turn.

On Saturday, Wembley Stadium had a novel contender in the round. This man, like one or two others, has shared the ring with Usyk before, so he knows exactly what it takes to beat him and how far he falls tiny of that requirement. That man is, of course, Briton Daniel Dubois, who stopped Anthony Joshua in impressive fashion with a tiny right hook in front of 96,000 fans at the weekend. While merciless, the performance spoke volumes about Dubois’ recent progress and heralded his arrival as one of the best heavyweights in the world. It also built on previous wins over Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic and showed the pace of his development since losing to Usyk in nine rounds last August.

That night, in the Usyk fight, he was sent to school, like many of Usyk’s opponents, and didn’t find “success” – if you can call it that – until the fifth round, when a low blow left Usyk writhing on the canvas for several minutes. That blow, of course, had no bearing on the fight, nor did it ruin Usyk’s lesson, but now, 13 months later, it is being used as evidence that these two men, Usyk and Dubois, should meet again. Relying on knockout victories over Miller, Hrgovic and now Joshua, clearly isn’t enough to make a rematch with Usyk worthwhile. But where there’s controversy in boxing, there’s a case, and Dubois and his team certainly believe they have one.

Fair enough, they believed they were right at the time and made quite a splash about the incident; both during the fight and especially after it, when Dubois lost. Whether feeble or not, the controversial nature of that moment in the fifth round allowed those involved to take the narrative and twist it however they wanted. For Dubois and his team, that meant presenting a different picture than what we witnessed in Poland in August. That meant exaggerating the success Dubois had in the fight, both before and after that flashpoint, and asking the question, “If, as we believe, that wasn’t a low blow, did Daniel Dubois essentially knock out Oleksandr Usyk in the fifth round?”

Without a doubt, if the blow was low, that’s true and a fair interpretation of things. Usyk, after all, was on the canvas for a lot longer than 10 seconds and seemed to be in more physical pain from that Dubois punch than he ever had before. He was hurt by it, there’s no doubt about it, but that still doesn’t mean the punch was justified, nor does it mean that the controversy over the low blow should be enough to bring two fighters who have yet to prove themselves equals together for a second fight.

The last time this happened in Usyk’s career, we were left with a similar feeling and the same question: why? Back then, Anthony Joshua was chasing Usyk for a rematch, a contracted one, and there was probably more of an argument for it then, simply because Joshua was the champion that Usyk had dethroned and because in the process he had at least managed to last 12 rounds. It didn’t matter that he won very few of those 12 rounds. Joshua wanted the rematch and felt he would do better the second time around.

As it turned out, that was both true and ultimately irrelevant. It’s true that Joshua fared marginally better in the pair’s rematch, even hurting Usyk in the ninth round, but there was a persistent sense throughout that Usyk was always in control, both of the pace of the fight and the opponent in front of him. In the end, it was just more of the same. Usyk was given a chance to assert his superiority, while Joshua returned to the place of trauma and went through it all again, this time exacerbating his insecurities and self-destructive beliefs. So it was no surprise when Joshua took the microphone after all that and expressed too much of himself to a global audience. In many ways, he had been exposed twice in one night: first by Usyk, and then by his own demons.

The next British heavyweight to try again with Usyk will be Tyson Fury on December 21. He outperformed Joshua and Dubois when he boxed Usyk in May, but like Joshua and Dubois, he still couldn’t figure out the former cruiserweight champion. Down in the ninth round, Fury pulled off a huge victory, reaching the final bell, the sound of which would have been not only a relief but a reminder that a rematch was on the table. Had that not sounded and Fury been stopped in the ninth, any demands for a sequel would have been greatly and rightly reduced.

As it is, because Fury had a decent period early on and because he is a man with some physical advantages, the Usyk rematch is significant and will be engaging when it comes. It is clearly more intriguing than Usyk vs. Joshua II and the same can be said for the Usyk vs. Daniel Dubois rematch, despite Dubois’ progress. The truth is that Usyk vs. Fury II is still a clash of the two best heavyweights in the world and nothing we have seen from the others since their first meeting has changed that.

Even Dubois, as good as he looked on Saturday, isn’t quite there yet. In fact, given his age (27) and recent form, it would almost be a shame if he was brought back to that level so quickly when he’s been developing so well. “I want to have my rematch (against Usyk),” Dubois said after beating Joshua, “and right the wrong.”

Meanwhile, Usyk’s promoter Alexander Krassyuk told Sky Sports: “You never know, but why not? Some people had questions about the (first) fight. There was one moment in the fight that left some doubts about the low blow. Why not if Dubois is still ready? Double no-debate, triple no-debate? Oh come on, that makes history.”

The exile of Oleksandr Usyk after three huge wins is evidence of Daniel Dubois’ ambition and willingness to test himself, and he deserves nothing but applause for that. But it could also be argued that the very thing that makes the heavyweights believe they’re the ones to dethrone Usyk – his age: 37 – should be precisely what Dubois and his team should be looking at as a reason to wait. After all, with Dubois 10 years younger than Usyk and currently in great shape, there’s every chance Dubois could pick up the mantle in the next year or two, without risking what Anthony Joshua experienced with Usyk in Saudi Arabia. That is, at a time when his self-belief has never been greater, perhaps the last thing Daniel Dubois needs is to be brought back into line and reminded once again of the flaws he’s managed to hide with concealer in recent fights. Perhaps true success in boxing is a byproduct of timing; that is, skipping the bad fights and taking the right ones. This is the typical ethos of most boxers on their way up, when avoidance is often the name of the game, and that only changes, this approach, when the huge money finds its way to the table and the boxer is surrounded by men ready and willing to share it. Then the boxer hears only what he wants to hear and what his team feels that hear. Then even a punch below the belt can become a knockout blow. Then even defeat can become a victory.