Daniel Dubois

Daniel Dubois (born 6 September 1997) is a British professional boxer. He previously held the World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight title (Regular version) from 2022 to 2023 and the International Boxing Federation (IBF) heavyweight title from 2024 to 2025. At regional level, he has held multiple heavyweight championships, including the British and Commonwealth titles from 2019 to 2020. As an amateur, he was a five-time national junior titlist and British champion. Dubois is known for his formidable punching power, with 21 of 22 wins by knockout.

Amateur career

His father took him to the boxing gym at the age of nine to stay out of trouble in South London. He trains at the Peacock Gym in Canning Town, working under Tony and Martin Bowers. Dubois had around 75 amateur bouts. He won two English schoolboy titles, two junior ABAs plus the CYPs. Dubois spent 18 months in the GB Elite system in Sheffield, boxing for England around a dozen times, competing at the European Youth championships twice and winning gold medals at international events in Tammer (Finland) and Brandenburg (Germany). He was on the Great Britain Olympic team aiming to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, however, he opted to turn professional instead, rendering him unable to compete in the Olympics. He signed with boxing promoter Frank Warren.

Professional career

Early career

Dubois' first fight as a professional was a knockout win in the first 35 seconds of the first round against Marcus Kelly in April 2017. In his fourth fight, he knocked out Mauricio Barragan, a late substitute, in the second round to win the vacant WBC Youth heavyweight title. In October 2017, he knocked out AJ Carter in the first round to claim the Southern Area heavyweight title. He won the English heavyweight title in his eighth fight in June 2018, beating journeyman Tom Little by stoppage in the fifth round. He won the WBO European title in March 2019, beating former WBO heavyweight title challenger, Răzvan Cojanu, in two rounds. Dubois was taken the full distance for the first time by former world title challenger Kevin Johnson in October 2018, winning on points after ten rounds, and beat Richard Lartey in the fourth round in April 2019.

In July 2019, he beat Nathan Gorman by knockout in the fifth round to improve his record to 12 wins, 11 by stoppage, and win the vacant British heavyweight title. Boxing journalist Steve Bunce said he "...fought like an old, seasoned bruiser, his feet flawless, his jab a stiff weapon inherited from relics of the ring". BBC boxing correspondent Mike Costello described him as "...one of the brightest prospects in the sport at the moment."

In his next fight, Dubois faced Ebenezer Tetteh. Dubois blasted Tetteh out in the first round, dropping him twice in the process.

After that, Dubois faced Japanese heavyweight Kyotaro Fujimoto. Fujimoto was overmatched from the beginning, fighting to survive from the opening bell. In the second round, Dubois connected on a right hand that knocked out Fujimoto.

On 29 August 2020, Dubois had another dominant win, this time against Ricardo Snijders. Dubois managed to drop his opponent three times in the first round. The first round would end up being the last that Snijders would survive, as the referee waved the fight off after Dubois dropped his opponent for the fourth time.

Rise up the ranks

Dubois vs. Joyce

On 7 February 2020, a press release came out to officially announce Dubois vs. Joe Joyce (11–0, 10 KOs). The fight was scheduled to take place on 11 April at The O2 Arena in London, live on BT Sport Box Office. Dubois would be defending his British, Commonwealth, WBC Silver and WBO International titles and Joyce would be defending his WBA Gold title. The fight was billed as "Seek & Destroy". The fight was promoted by Frank Warren's Queensberry Promotions. Dubois said the fight would be his 'most devastating performance' of his career. Days after the fight was announced, Joyce split with trainer Adam Booth. He had reportedly signed with his former trainer Ismael Salas and headed to Las Vegas to train at the UFC Training Center. The split with Booth was amicable, according to Joyce and his manager Sam Jones. Salas became Joyce's fourth trainer in only his eleventh professional fight. Salas stated Joyce would be in top shape for the fight. Although his previous coaches did a good job, they never understood his body. He also stated Joyce would be Dubois' biggest test, someone he has been following since his debut. On 20 February, it was confirmed the vacant European heavyweight title would be at stake.

On 12 March, Frank Warren stated the fight was still scheduled to take place despite the coronavirus concerns and everything would be closely monitored. On 26 March, the BBBofC had cancelled all UK boxing events and lockdown in the UK was also confirmed. The fight was pushed back to 11 July 2024. Frank Warren did not want the fight to take place behind closed doors. By May 2020, the July fight date was also looking unlikely, due to the British Board's request to have any events without an attendance. Joyce was open to having an interim bout in between. On 25 June, the fight was again rescheduled. This time to take place on 24 October at The O2 Arena. Warren hoped by then, the BBBofC would allow limited crowd to attend the event. Joyce had an interim bout against Michael Wallisch, on 25 July, who he defeated via 3rd round TKO. On 29 August, Dubois stopped late replacement Ricardo Snijders in round 2. Dubois was originally scheduled to fight unbeaten two-time Olympic Erik Pfeifer.

There was speculation the fight would likely be pushed back further another month. Both boxers said they would take the fight without any fans. On 6 October, Warren announced the fight would take place on BT Sports, without pay-per-view, which was considered a huge reversal, on 28 November at Church House in London. The fight billing changed to "At Last" after being rescheduled three times. Prior to the fight, the bookmakers had Joyce the underdog heading in. Joyce felt insulted and overlooked. Majority bookmakers also had the fight expected to not go the distance. Joyce stated this boosted his confidence going into the fight and vowed, "people who bet on me will have a nicer Christmas." Joyce was also criticized on is physique when he fought Wallisch. The fight was looked at a genuine 50–50, with many boxing pundits and boxers unable to separate the two. Only two days before the fight, Joyce team hit a setback as trainer Salas tested positive for Covid upon arriving at the hotel in London. The fight was still scheduled to go ahead with Steve Broughton brought in Joyce's corner alongside Jimmy Tibbs. Dubois weighed 244.4 pounds. Joyce came in heavier at 258.9 pounds.

In a closely contested fight that had implications for future world title hopes, Dubois was landing the harder and cleaner punches while Joyce stayed at range behind powerful jabs. The repeated accurate jabs from Joyce caused swelling to the left eye of Dubois from the second round. In the tenth, after another hard jab landed on his now-swollen-shut eye, Dubois went down on one knee, allowing the referee to count him out to suffer the first loss of his career. At the time of stoppage, only one judge had Joyce ahead 87–84 and the other two judges had Dubois ahead 86–85 and a controversial 88–83, only giving Joyce two rounds. According to the CompuBox Stats, Dubois landed 146 of his 486 punches thrown, at 30% connect rate. 82 landed were power shots. Joyce was less accurate, landing 125 of his 544 thrown, at 23% connect. Joyce landed 98 jabs which was 79.6% of his total output. Dubois was hit with claims that he quit from fellow boxers and pundits, however was also backed by some, saying it was the right decision and potentially saved his career. Following the fight it was revealed that Dubois had suffered a broken left orbital bone and nerve damage around the eye and would be out of action for around six months.

Dubois vs. Dinu

After a layoff of over six months, on 16 April 2021 it was announced that Dubois would return to the ring on 5 June to face Bogdan Dinu (20–2, 16 KOs) at the Telford International Centre in Telford. Dinu had only lost two fights - to Jarrell Miller and Kubrat Pulev - and held a record of 20 wins. The fight was for the vacant WBA interim heavyweight title. Dubois said he would approach the fight as if he was starting his professional career again. Following his first professional defeat, Dubois split with trainer Martin Bowers and hired Mark Tibbs in February 2021. In May, Dubois split with Tibbs and hired Shane McGuigan. According to reports, it was Tibbs, who had told team Dubois that he had other commitments, which caused the split. To prepare for Dubois, Dinu trained in Buzau, Romania with Jarrell Miller. Dubois weighed 240.3 pounds, slightly lighter than his loss to Joyce. Dinu weighed 250.4 pounds.

Dubois won the bout by second-round knockout, winning the vacant WBA interim heavyweight title in the process. The win also made him the mandatory challenger for the WBA (Regular) title held by undefeated Trevor Bryan. It was Dubois' right hand which connected Dinu's jaw that dropped him to the canvas. Dinu was unable to continue and the fight was stopped after 31 seconds.