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Nick Parkinson
If you’re not an avid follower of boxing, you might not know that Daniel Dubois, who fights Anthony Joshua on Saturday, is actually a reigning world heavyweight champion.
Dubois holds the same belt the likes of Joshua, Wladimir Klitschko, Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson once held. But how much do you know about Dubois, the 26-year-old from south London, England, who makes a first defence against former champion Joshua in front of an expected 96,000 crowd at Wembley Stadium?
Dubois became champion after winning the IBF interim title with an eighth-round stoppage win over Filip Hrgovic and was then promoted (without throwing a punch) to full world champion status when Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk subsequently relinquished the IBF world title belt following his points win over Tyson Fury in May, which crowned him as undisputed (and boxing’s first four-belt) world heavyweight champion.
Dubois also lost to Usyk in a world title attempt last year, but what else do you need to know about the man who is trying to stop Joshua becoming a three-time world heavyweight champion, and potentially ruin plans for Joshua vs. Fury in 2025?
He hits hard, very hard
Dubois is known as “Dynamite” for good reason. His explosive punching power has accounted for 20 of 23 opponents. On his professional debut, Dubois blasted away Marcus Kelly in just 35 seconds, but his most impressive win came in his last fight when he stopped IBF mandatory challenger Hrgovic with cuts opened up by Dubois’ punching power in June in Saudi Arabia.
Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs) also dislodged the considerable mass of Jarrell Miller (who weighed a staggering 333 pounds, about 100 pounds more than Dubois) in a tenth and final round in December last year, also in Saudi. Those two wins were proof that Dubois can hurt and stop top level opposition. Dubois also insists he scored a legitimate knockdown when he challenged Usyk for the WBA, IBF and WBO world titles in Poland in August last year. Dubois’ team felt he landed a legal right to the body that dropped Usyk in the fifth round, but no count was given and Usyk was allowed time to recover before the fight resumed. Usyk then dropped Dubois in Round 8 and knocked him out in the ninth with a short, straight right.
Frank Warren, who promotes Dubois, says Dubois learned a lot from the defeat to Usyk.
“Daniel Dubois is a young man still whose had a couple of good wins against undefeated fighters [Hrgovic, Miller] to get himself into a great position,” Warren told ESPN.
“People see him as the underdog against AJ but he has recently turned 27, and he’s matured a lot over the last year, there’s a lot more about him than when he fought Usyk.
“After the Usyk fight we had a serious sit-down chat. He hit Usyk with some big punches and gave him one if not the hardest fight Usyk has had at heavyweight. I contest that the shot Daniel caught him with was a low blow and he could have won the fight. All the nonsense with the referee got to Daniel and that shouldn’t have happened to a world-class fighter like him.
“We had a lengthy conversation about it and he has shown since what he is about. He gritted his teeth against Hrgovic, changed tactics and there’s a maturity about him now.
“He’s the hardest puncher in the heavyweight division, plus he’s got a really good jab which he showed to beat Hrgovic, who is a really good boxer.
“For me, this fight is about heart and mind for both Daniel and Joshua. I’ve seen AJ on the back foot versus Andy Ruiz and Usyk and he’s not happy with it. And I hope AJ does start throwing his right hand because he will be vulnerable then to counter punches from Daniel.”
Dubois has been limited in his availability to media recently, but said in a recent interview with his promoter Queensberry: “The last couple of fights I’ve fought better opposition [than Joshua] and I’m going in there to win by any means necessary.”
There are chinks in his armour
As dangerous as Dubois is on the attack, he has also shown vulnerability and a porous defence. Against Hrgovic, Dubois was continually open to getting caught by right hands from the Croatian, who faded as his cuts got worse. Joshua’s right hand has looked devastating in recent fights against the likes of Francis Ngannou, and it’s an area Dubois’ team will surely have worked on in preparation for Sept. 21.
Usyk also knocked out Dubois a little over a year ago, and he was floored three times in the first round by Kevin Lerena before recovering to win in Round 3 in 2023.
Dubois was perhaps unfairly criticised for quitting in a Round 10 knockout defeat to English rival Joe Joyce in November 2020. Dubois’ left eye was swollen shut by the time Joyce planted a jab on it in the tenth round, which was enough for him to take a knee and get counted out in a clash for the European, British and Commonwealth titles. Dubois’ swollen eye increasingly restricted his vision and had the fight continued, the injury could have been a lot worse.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn believes Dubois’ mental strength could also betray the younger fighter in front of his biggest audience yet.
“It’s a dangerous fight [for Joshua], and it will be interesting to see if Dubois can handle the pressure,” Hearn told a call of UK boxing writers.
“I know he boxed Usyk in Poland [in August 2023] but this is going to be a moment that will make his knees knock. You not only need big balls but a strong mind to compose yourself in these type of moments. I think it will make him fight more erratically and that could be a danger but whatever the game plan I think he will struggle to keep to it with a cool head. That might make it a shootout.”
He recovered from a career-threatening injury
Dubois’ promoter Frank Warren feared the young heavyweight’s career was over due to the eye injury he suffered versus Joyce. Dubois suffered a fractured orbital bone and nerve damage during the fight, courtesy of Joyce’s accurate work with the jab.
“He’s lost twice, but the first one against Joe Joyce he suffered a fractured orbital in four places and his retina was nearly detached,” Warren told ESPN.
“If that fight had gone it would have been the end of his career. Then with Usyk, he got hit with some good punches but he was not smashed over. That four minute break after the supposed low blow got to him and he needed to be more mentally strong.”
He has history with Joshua
Dubois sparred with Joshua seven years ago, as well as former WBC champion Tyson Fury. He is trained by Don Charles at the The Farm Gym in Boreham Wood, north London, where the arch of Wembley Stadium can just about be seen in the distance. The pair dispute what happened during the sparring sessions. Dubois claims he floored Joshua during the sparring session, which Joshua denies.
Dubois is not as comfortable talking publicly as Joshua or Fury. But in a face-to-face, studio television interview with Joshua, the rivals had to be separated as their discussion boiled over.
“At a roundtable discussion with Joshua for television, Daniel didn’t back down, he wasn’t intimidated by Joshua,” Warren told ESPN.
“He’s normally quite introverted but he said: ‘Let’s do it now,’ and they both had to be restrained. It’s not what I expected from him, I think I was the most shocked person in the room.”
Dubois said in a subsequent interview on his promoter Queensberry’s website: “Disrespect is not the right word, is there respect in that ring? This is a fight. If you want respect, go and become a lawyer or a doctor or something. I’m ready to fight, I’m sick of all these questions now. I’m ready to fight now. I won it, I’m a legitimate world champion.
“I’m out of the darkness and into the light, it’s just life, up and down, experiences in life you have to learn, I mean what I say I’m out of the darkness into the light, it’s got a whole different meaning to it, I don’t want to go into too much detail about it. This fight is about redemption, part of my redemption coming from where I was to where I am, reaching my true potential.”
He is from a fighting family and ancestry
Dubois has 10 siblings, and has lived with some of them at a family mansion in Essex with his father Dave, who had a business selling posters in New York. Dave has been a big influence on Daniel’s career, and has even been involved in his corner on fight nights. Ancestor Sylvia Dubois was an African-American slave who won herself freedom as a successful bareknuckle fighter in the 1800s.
Dubois is not the only professional boxer in the family — his younger sister Caroline (10-0, 5 KOs), 23, is one of the rising stars in women’s boxing, and heavily tipped to be a world champion one day. Caroline won an interim world lightweight title in her last fight. ESPN understands Caroline and Daniel are currently not on speaking terms due to a fallout.