As the four pre-eminent heavyweights of the past decade; Fury, Joshua, Wilder and Usyk, jostle in the departure lounge of their mid-thirties, a crop of aspiring heavyweights are eager to emerge as the preeminent contender beyond the long shadow cast by the ageing quartet. Among them, 26-year-old British heavyweight Daniel Dubois.
This weekend, on the latest instalment of the Saudi Arabian propaganda department’s sporting output, wedged beneath veteran Deontay Wilder’s last hurrah with Zilhei Zhang, the apparently awkward Londoner will seek to defy the doubters and overcome Croatia’s Filip Hrgovic. It is a contest with consequence, the winner will become the IBF’s successor to Oleksander Usyk. Yes, the IBF found a way.
Despite his brawn, a solid, if simplistic style and thunderous punching power, Daniel Dubois will once again be challenged to prove he has the mettle to compete for the titles on Saturday. It will require a career best-performance to catch and beat the craftier Hrgovic, 17-0 (14ko) and Dubois may need to demonstrate his ability to overcome adversity in order to do so.
As Dubois sits gulping air between the sentences of his answers to media questions ahead of Saturday, the innocence still lives in his face and the glances to left and right in search of the certainty the inquisitor pursues evokes a peculiar wish in this observer that he can summon that performance and quash the doubts about his resilience.
Dubois is aware of the doubt. Questions posed by his critics and by interviewers never tend to focus on his technical aptitude or his physical prowess or preparedness, if they do, it is merely to segue to the more difficult questions. The nature of his defeats has landed him with a reputation no fighter welcomes. That being, that he quits under pressure. His first loss was to fellow Brit Joe Joyce in 2020, against whom he was winning on the cards but had sustained a broken orbital bone to his left eye. Under fire from a surging Joyce he opted to take a knee and listen to a 10-count.
More recently, his stoppage defeat to the current undisputed Heavyweight champion Oleksander Usyk, having lost impetus and belief when not awarded a knockdown for a shot to the waistband of Usyk’s trunks in the 5th round, he was stopped in the 9th when only in modest distress, added fuel to the fire. Post fight, demands for a rematch based on the knockdown being ruled an accidental low blow fizzled out quicker than a diminished Dubois had in the four rounds that followed. Both instances emboldened the idea Dubois lacked the character to succeed at the highest levels in boxing.
A calamitous encounter with blown-up, circuit Cruiserweight Kevin Lerena in the fight before Usyk, in which Dubois injured his knee trying not to hit the canvas in the first round. He was knocked down three times in a disastrous opener and appeared dazed and distressed between rounds was not the qualifier for the Usyk it ought to have been and returned the spotlight to vulnerabilities shown in the Joyce defeat. Lerena’s failure to capitalise in the second round with Dubois ripe for the taking will be something the South African will lament for the rest of his life.
For balance, there was prudence in opting out to Joyce in light of his significant injury. Ultimately, boxing greatness of the type required to win heavyweight titles demands both risk taking and a willingness to prevail in difficult periods but it also requires an ability to fight another day. Naysayers are reminded that the sport is not a cinematic melodrama, it is the hurt business and fighters should be able to make the type of choice Dubois did without being denigrated for it in the aftermath. Nevertheless, doubt flourished.
Speaking to Donald McRae at the Guardian in 2019 Dubois believed he had the necessary spirit inside but acknowledge it may take adversity to reveal it; “Sometimes you need to learn hard lessons. You have to look deep within yourself to bring out your best.”
It has proven to be a prophetic and perhaps revealing remark from a man who was 9-0 and 21-years-old at the time. Dubois most recent fight against the bloated braggart Jarrell Miller appeared matchmaking born of despair. Frank Warren was looking for the biggest, loudest and most incessant challenge. A proven PED user who would outweigh Dubois by close to a 100 pounds. The fight represented the last chance for Dubois. ‘put up or shut up’. He prevailed. Knocking out the giant with 10 seconds to go.
And so, he arrives back in Saudi Arabia. Still awkward. Still forcing confidence through his voice. Still trying to impose his manhood on his own shyness. Still looking to associates when a question requires him to remember a practiced response. The faith of others is easier to summon than demonstrating his own.
“Frank’s [Warren] always believed in me, he knows I can do it. Its just about me knowing I can do it.”
5 years on from his interview with McRae, he gave the above response in conversation with Andy Clarke this week, the answers are no more assertive and the doubt regroups.
Perhaps for Dubois, the best answers will be delivered in the ring where ‘muscle-shredding violence gives no quarter’.
BOXINGWRITER.CO.UK 
Leave a comment