Kevin Lerena stopped in the third round by Daniel Dubois

Kevin Lerena learned a harsh lesson on Saturday night as he slumped to a third round technical knockout defeat against the Briton Daniel Dubois at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Not only was the South African, christened “Gutter Dog” by renowned ring announcer Jimmy Lennon, floored for the first time in his career in a quest to relieve Dubois of his WBA regular title, but Lerena also became acutely aware how important it is to put an opponent away when he is well on top.

Dubois had himself been down three times in an eventful opening round in which he had back-pedalled almost suddenly after being struck by a left from Lerena which bounced off the top of his head.

Totally off balance and seemingly dazed, he staggered backwards and went down, suffering from what it later transpired was a knee injury. He took to the knee on two more occasions, but still beat the full count.

Battling with restrictive movement and unable to get his punches off, Dubois appeared to be in a fair deal of discomfort, but inexplicably Lerena seemed to take his foot off the gas in a tame second round, probing, stalking, looking for the openings.

Two minutes into the third, Lerena was decked by a booming straight right that landed him in an unfamiliar position on the seat of his pants.

Knowing full well his injury would continue to hamper him if the fight went into the deeper rounds, Dubois went for the kill with a barrage of punches once Lerena had regained his feet.

A savage uppercut late in the round took everything out of Lerena and sensing the challenger was badly hurt, English referee Howard Foster had seen enough and stepped in to call a halt.