Lartey "took a dive"? (Patreon)

I seriously doubt it. He was clearly hurt by two jabs prior, and the right hand - although partially blocked - did land on the side of his head. The way his body reacted to the jabs, and the follow up right hand - it's extremely difficult to fake that type of body reaction so accurately. I've seen people take dives, and they absolutely do not look like that. 99.9% of KO's called "dives" by a large section of boxing fans, are not dives at all. There were people saying AJ took a dive against Ruiz ffs! People saying Moorer took a dive against Foreman. The most absurd example recently were the people claiming Kovalev took a dive against Canelo 🤦🏾‍♂️. People just don't seem to be able to spot the telltale signs that someone is genuinely hurt. They can't tell the difference between a genuinely hurt fighter and someone who's acting. Sonny Liston was 100% acting in the Ali rematch. The way he went down nice and gently, breaking his fall with his gloves, and the way he was rolling around on the canvas, it was like something out of a bad comedy movie or an old cartoon. THAT was a dive. As blatant as you'll ever see. He was in full control of his body, his movements weren't "tired" or "floppy" at all, which is typical of someone who's genuinely hurt.

Lartey looked genuinely hurt. The shots that hurt him were fairly innocuous, I agree, but that is down to Lartey's punch resistance being compromised somehow. He took far better shots off Dubois before going down. Perhaps he'd suffered a concussion and/or had been KO'd in sparring in the run up to the Wardley fight. That would be the most likely explanation. But I can assure you, having watched thousands of fights since the 80's, having boxed myself, having knocked people out, and having watched countless people get knocked out up close -both in the gym and in fights - Lartey absolutely did look genuinely hurt.