{"id":264907,"date":"2025-07-14T18:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T18:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/264907\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T18:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T18:31:09","slug":"daniel-dubois-that-first-fight-against-usyk-is-behind-me-im-a-man-of-the-future-boxing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/264907\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Dubois: \u2018That first fight against Usyk is behind me \u2013 I\u2019m a man of the future\u2019 | Boxing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely the biggest fight of my life,\u201d Daniel Dubois says of his world heavyweight title unification bout against Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night before, following a slightly deflated pause, he highlights an unusually downbeat buildup. \u201cIt\u2019s strange but it feels like it\u2019s been going under the cover, like it hasn\u2019t been really hyped\u2011up as I would have thought a unification fight will be. But maybe that will pick up on the night.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sitting in the July sunshine outside his gym in Borehamwood, with the Wembley arch clearly visible through the haze of heat, Dubois looks a little hurt when I ask if he can explain why there has been such limited fanfare around an interesting rematch between two contrasting heavyweights who own all the world titles between them. \u201cI\u2019m not sure,\u201d Dubois says in his role as the IBF champion. He then laughs ruefully.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems as if every fight I\u2019m in, there seems to be a little bit of funniness going on. I can\u2019t quite put my finger on why.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dubois is a deeply reserved world heavyweight champion who still lives with his formidable and mysterious father. He is 27 and a wrecking force in the ring, as he proved when knocking down Anthony Joshua four times<\/a> during a one\u2011sided beating last September, but Dubois often appears more like a shy teenager who is still tentative beneath the giant shadow of his domineering dad, Stan. Could it be that Dubois is simply too quiet to generate outrageous headlines and soundbites before a fight?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know, mate,\u201d he says, before comparing himself with Joshua, who has been such a consummate publicity machine throughout his long career. \u201cAJ don\u2019t trash-talk really, either. Every fight he\u2019s doing sells out and it\u2019s all big hyper stuff. But with my fights it always seems to be something \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Dubois trails away before he returns with a more defiant response to his low-key profile. \u201cBut, after this fight, I want to clear up and move forward as a legit world champion. The undisputed world champion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did his destruction of Joshua receive the acknowledgment it deserved? \u201cNo, I don\u2019t think so. I think people are talking more about AJ\u2019s loss rather than my victory. It don\u2019t hurt me but it\u2019s unjust, isn\u2019t it? I\u2019ve got to put that right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dubois stands victorious over Anthony Joshua at Wembley last year. Photograph: Richard Pelham\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Dubois sounds more hopeful. \u201cIt looks like it\u2019s going to be a sellout which is good, innit?\u201d he says, stressing that he will be even better against Usyk. \u201cI\u2019m a different fighter now. There have been real improvements. I\u2019m doing things I\u2019ve always done but I\u2019m doing them better. Maybe I just want it more now. I\u2019m setting out to do what my dad talked about in the beginning, before I even was a real fighter. He always said I would win a world heavyweight championship and then I\u2019d win it outright and become a legend like Frank Bruno, Lennox Lewis and Nigel Benn [from] that era of fighters where there were real fighting men.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year Usyk became the first undisputed world heavyweight champion this century when he defeated Tyson Fury<\/a>. Matching a feat that had been last achieved in 1999 by Lewis, Usyk is the best heavyweight of the past 25 years. He defeated both Joshua and Fury twice and his intelligence, technique and resolve are, until now at least, unbeatable assets which have allowed the Ukrainian to win all 23 bouts since his professional debut as an Olympic champion in 2013.<\/p>\n

Dubois concedes that Usyk is, by some distance, the best fighter he has faced. \u201cHe\u2019s done it all, really, hasn\u2019t he? I just have to break down whatever he\u2019s good at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Usyk was in trouble when he and Dubois fought for the first time in August 2023<\/a>. A heavy punch from Dubois landed on the beltline and, as it was ruled controversially as a low blow, Usyk stayed down for four minutes. He was canny enough to wring as much time as he could on the canvas before rising and eventually stopping Dubois in the ninth round. Dubois now stresses that Usyk has a weakness \u201cto the body, to the head, wherever a shot can land\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dubois and Oleksandr Usyk trading blows in 2023, when the Ukrainian eventually emerged triumphant. Photograph: Kacper Pempel\/Reuters<\/p>\n

He says: \u201cI don\u2019t want to keep going back to that [2023] fight because that wasn\u2019t me at my best. I landed one good shot but that weren\u2019t my best shot. You\u2019re going to see the difference on 19 July. That first fight is behind me now. It\u2019s just a memory and I\u2019m a man of the future. I\u2019ve got to stamp my authority on this division.\u201d<\/p>\n

His father always told him that he would become the undisputed world heavyweight champion, and Dubois says: \u201cI believed everything he said \u2013 the words, the way he said it. He was so sure about it that I believed and thought: \u2018Yes, I\u2019m going to do this.\u2019 It\u2019s not just talk. We\u2019ve been working really hard from when I was seven years old. I was grinding my fists down to the bone for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dubois holds up his bunched fists to show me again the deep scars that pockmark his knuckles. \u201cThey were made from all the push-ups I did [with his knuckles pressed down against the floor]. I can be proud of these marks. They\u2019ve got me out of trouble a few times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dubois once told me that, when he was a kid, his dad made him do press-ups for hours<\/a>. What was his record? The big man grins. \u201cWe never counted the push-ups. We counted the hours. Maybe four, five hours? We did some crazy stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe mix it up now as it\u2019s all about maintaining what you already have. So I still do the push-ups but not to that level I was doing then. I\u2019m reaping the benefits of it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dubois and six of his siblings were kept at home by their father, and never went to school, and he still seems stunted outside the ring. When I ask if he is finding a way to be his own person while still listening to his dad, Dubois looks confused. \u201cI don\u2019t even know what you mean by that question.\u201d<\/p>\n

I talk again about the deep influence his dad exerts over him and his boxing career. It has helped in the ring but surely he wants to make his own choices away from boxing? \u201cI guess you could say that. But, in the boxing sense, we\u2019re a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Since he swept aside Joshua and proved himself a renewed force following his earlier defeats by Joe Joyce \u2013 when he suffered a badly broken orbital bone in 2021 \u2013 and Usyk, Dubois has cut a much more confident figure. In beating Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic and Joshua, and becoming a world champion after boxing politics gifted him the IBF belt from Usyk, Dubois has new conviction. He now presents a serious challenge to Usyk which is bolstered by the decisive backing of his trainer Don Charles \u2013 the veteran cornerman who joined the Dubois camp in 2023. Whose idea was it to approach Charles? \u201cMy dad\u2019s. My dad contacted him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did Dubois know much about Charles? \u201cI didn\u2019t need to. My dad gave me the go-ahead. I think I sparred with Derek Chisora [whom Charles used to train] but it just happened. It\u2019s just fate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dubois\u2019s trainer Don Charles feeds horses at the Farm gym. Photograph: Graeme Robertson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Charles is an intriguing figure \u2013 a strict disciplinarian with a layered personal story from being a child soldier in Biafra during the Nigerian civil war to homeless in Britain, cleaning toilets and sweeping streets before he reinvented himself as a successful florist and then the owner of a large security business. How does Charles calm him during the last hour before a fight in front of 94,000 people at Wembley?<\/p>\n

Dubois shrugs. \u201cYou\u2019d have to ask him. He holds it together pretty well but my dad has a good stern talk with me. Don leaves me alone until I need to be spoken to when he pulls me aside to tell me a few things.\u201d<\/p>\n

How has Charles helped Dubois? \u201cI think we\u2019ve helped each other. I\u2019ve helped him get success with a world champion, while he\u2019s been there for me as a constant old\u2011school man that\u2019s always on time and brings old-school values and that\u2019s a major thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad we\u2019ve done it together and I\u2019ve become world champion. We need to push on now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dubois points out that, until they began working together, Charles \u201chadn\u2019t cracked it before\u201d which seems to imply that the trainer\u2019s hunger matches that of his fighter. \u201cI think so,\u201d Dubois says. \u201cHe\u2019s hungry and I really am hungry. I\u2019m glad we\u2019ve done it together and I\u2019ve become world champion. We need to push on now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kieran Farrell, who works on the pads with Dubois and as Charles\u2019s assistant trainer, has made a remarkable recovery since he lost around 30% of his brain following an acute subdural hematoma suffered during his bout with Anthony Crolla in 2013. Dubois\u2019s insular character means that he has little interest in Farrell\u2019s backstory<\/a>. When I ask him if he knew much about his co-trainer\u2019s past he shakes his head. \u201cNot really. I\u2019ve heard a little bit and I think I read about him in Boxing News, way back then [when Farrell was hospitalised]. But my dad reached out to him to get him involved. So it\u2019s been all put together by my dad and it works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dubois also dismisses the idea that Farrell\u2019s fate as a fighter might sometimes make him consider the dangers of boxing. \u201cNo, not at all. I\u2019m on my journey and these are the risks I take. I know what I\u2019m doing. We\u2019re in this to win and that\u2019s part of the game \u2013 the hazards of being a boxer. I\u2019ve just got to make sure it\u2019s not me [who is injured], I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

The heavyweight\u2019s limited outlook is perhaps understandable. He was vilified on social media after losing against Joyce, and accused of being a coward and \u201ca quitter\u201d even though his injury could have left him blind if he had boxed on, and he suggests that such difficult experiences have shaped him into the more assertive champion he is now. \u201cYes, yes,\u201d he says. \u201cI like Joe a lot and I\u2019ve got a lot of respect for him. Without Joe I wouldn\u2019t be where I am. Setbacks always make way for a good comeback.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joyce\u2019s career has since plummeted while Dubois has finally soared. \u201cIt\u2019s fate,\u201d Dubois suggests, \u201cand not being denied, working hard, having a good support network and a good dad. I never doubted it. I just was like, how are we going to come back now? How are we going to be better? Those moments, they pass like nothing. They\u2019re just moments. Everyone has them. If you\u2019re doing anything worthwhile that\u2019s hard, you\u2019re going to have these moments and you\u2019ve got to push through them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s definitely the biggest fight of my life,\u201d Daniel Dubois says of his world heavyweight title unification bout…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-264907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114853018547999162","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}