Daniel Dubois is a man of few words, with an occasional affection for the figurative. When he sat down with The Independent in May, before fighting Filip Hrgovic, Dubois said: “I’ve got to take it away from him.” Whatever “it” was, Dubois indeed took it. Now, addressing a larger group of journalists, the 27-year-old speaks similarly about Anthony Joshua. “I need to take him back to that dark place, make him break down.”
Dubois is talking about the more precarious moments in Joshua’s career: knockdowns by Wladimir Klitschko and Andy Ruiz Jr, exasperating exchanges with Oleksandr Usyk. Against Klitschko, in the same Wembley Stadium that hosts Saturday’s fight, Joshua rallied to retain the IBF heavyweight title – the belt that Dubois defends this weekend. But against Ruiz, there was no comeback; against Usyk, there was no way through in 2021 or 2022.
Dark places, indeed, but which Dubois has also visited. For Dubois, they were boxing rings shared with Joe Joyce in 2020, Kevin Lerena in 2022, and Usyk last summer. Joyce exploded the orbital bone of “Dynamite Daniel”, leaving the younger man kneeling and beaten – his faultless record suddenly faulty. Lerena put down an injured Dubois three times in round one, only for the Briton to somehow stop his opponent two rounds later. Against Usyk, there were familiar “quitter” jibes when Dubois was stopped by a jab, the same shot that secured Joyce’s win.
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