It's a combination of age, reflexes, and experience, and Dwayne still wouldn't put any money on himself against Josh in a normal, straight toe-to-toe. This isn't toe-to-toe, though. Dwayne's first shot was surprise and he doesn't intend to let this go on long enough for the kid to catch his breath again.

Being between the kid and the thugs is good, it means they won't shoot through him. He's still too valuable. One of them is watching Mira, to make sure she won't bolt, and that's good. She's luring him in with the twitchy, wide-eyed doe panic, keeping him out of the fight, which is moving too damn fast anyway. The knife doesn't worry Dwayne too much, but the gun, that he needs to keep control of. A free hand sweeps down, forcing the kid's arm down and away from his body, but the angle's wrong to hit him in the glass jaw. Fist to the kidneys, then, with a silent apology and pulling the blow enough that the guy's not pissing blood for a week. Better too little than too much, but shit he hopes it still looks good because he's got nearly three hundred pounds hanging on his waist trying to bring him to the floor, and he does not want to be down there.