How Daniel Dubois will pull off the biggest win of a monumental sporting weekend

Daily Mirror

17-07-2025

The 27-year-old British heavyweight needs to avenge a defeat to Oleksandr Usyk but is in the prime of his heavyweight career ahead of the Wembley showdown
Approaching a monumental sporting weekend, here's an interesting exercise. Make a list of great athletes who are acknowledged for their excellence but do not get the neon attention their talent deserves.
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There is one currently taking part in the Tour de France. Tadej Pogacar is well on his way to becoming the greatest bike rider that has ever lived but a household name outside of the cycling bubble? No.
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Another at the absolute peak of his powers is Ryan Moore, who has won 18 British Classics. But if you were not into horse-racing, there would be little chance of you recognising the record-breaking jockey if he walked into the local.
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That is two, for starters. And another will take centre-stage on Saturday. If there was one sporting event I attended last year that generated way more comment - way more - about the loser than about the victor, it was on September 21, 2024.
That was a night on which Daniel Dubois produced one of the most destructive, explosive heavyweight performances seen in a British boxing ring. Yet all the talk was about what had happened to his opponent, Anthony Joshua.
To jog the memory, here is what happened. Joshua - twice a world champion - was severely beaten by a younger, more skilful, more powerful fighter, whose hands carried twice the speed and force of Joshua's.
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That is what happened. It was a sensational win, confirming his IBF world title and following up a brilliant stoppage of the previously unbeaten Filip Hrgovic.
But acknowledgement of his feats remained low-key. Dubois did not even make the shortlist for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Presumably, it is because Dubois does not talk a great deal and when he does speak, he is fairly guarded.
He has not exactly thrown himself into the build-up to Saturday's meeting with Oleksandr Usyk but this is a fight that does not need talking up. Beaten by the Ukrainian in April, 2023 - a bout which saw the British fighter knock Usyk down in the fifth only for the punch to be controversially deemed a low blow - Dubois now has the tools to upset the odds at Wembley.
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Pound for pound, Usyk is one of the best boxers to have ever lived, there is no doubt about that. But there will come a time when age will blunt his weapons, if only by small degrees. Usyk will turn 39 in January.
At 27, Dubois has been on a learning curve, both mentally and physically. For a boxer to have his or her stomach/heart for the fight questioned must be as hurtful as it gets but that is what happened to Dubois when he took a knee in defeat to Joe Joyce. It transpired he had suffered a career-threatening - indeed sight-threatening eye injury.
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And some observers suggested Dubois had 'quit' in that ninth-round defeat to Usyk two years ago. But one thing is for sure - Dubois did not quit against Jarrell Miller when he won late in the tenth round of his first fight since the Usyk defeat.
And he did not quit against Hrgovic and did not quit against Joshua, a fight for which he was a clear underdog. Again, Dubois does not talk about how the 'quitting' accusations hurt him but his response has been to grow more skilful and more destructive as a fighter.
Illness meant Dubois had to pull out of a fight with Joseph Parker in February and ten months is a long lay-off. But the evidence of the win over Joshua suggests Usyk will be facing a fighter who has become the hardest puncher in the division.
Dubois does not look for the headline and the spotlight but come late Saturday night and Sunday morning, he might not be able to avoid them. Because on a monumental sporting weekend, I fancy Dubois to pull off the most monumental victory.