Latest news with #StanleyDubois
Daily Mail
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The ultimate pushy parent? Meet Daniel Dubois' 'crazy taskmaster' dad, who made his son do BRUTAL workouts as a child, 'made millions selling posters' as a market trader, and threw lavish party before Oleksandr Usyk fight
Name us a more fascinating father in boxing than Daniel Dubois ' dad and we'll show you a flying pig. Stanley Dubois - real name Dave - is under the cosh from boxing fans after throwing a lavish 70-person party at his Essex mansion just hours before his son's defeat by Oleksandr Usyk in the biggest fight of his career. How could Stanley, the boxing community wonders, expect Daniel to make merry with complete strangers, a misstep which saw him arrive later than ideal and lose his parking spot at Wembley? It is a question only Stanley and Daniel can answer. The Times broke the initial report of the party, though it remains unclear to what extent the boxer consented to it going ahead. But it is also worth asking: where would Dubois have been without his father in the first place? Dynamite has called his dad a 'legend' and a 'prophet,' crediting him for his rise in the brutal arenas of boxing. Stanley says he had a vision before Daniel was born that he would be a champion. That much has come true - the London-born bone crusher went into Saturday's bout holding the IBF title, though he was unable to unite the belts. 'Before he was born I had a vision that he would become a world champion boxer,' he told The Times this year. 'Then I saw that he had a lot of muscle and so I said to myself, I'm going to get him into the game as soon as I can. I was training him up by the time he was four years old. 'A lot of people don't have the vision I have. When you do have one, as Malcolm X did or any great leader, it comes from an outside force. It doesn't come from your mother, your father — it comes from God.' He took Daniel to his first boxing gym aged nine and would have him study VHS tapes of Frank Bruno and Lennox Lewis - who was the last British unified heavyweight world champion - to hone his craft. Stanley has had 11 kids via two marriages and homeschooled them from a council flat in Deptford, southeast London. Breakfast wasn't Golden Nuggets or Coco Pops. Daniel's daily morning palette was an entire chicken. But he wasn't just fed with protein, he was nourished with the word of God. In the living room, the children would recite the first verse of Psalm 144: 'Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who strengthens my hands for war and my fingers for battle.' Alongside that, hours of push-ups. Daniel used to do his with his fists closed - he still has the scars to this day - for up to three hours at a time. There would be no food or drink until they had finished. When he was five years old, he broke the world record for the most consecutive push-ups completed by a child at that age. 'You can do amazing things in a stable like where Jesus was born,' Stanley once said. Don Charles, Dubois' trainer, holds this education in high esteem. 'It was very tribal. Stanley Dubois is perceived within the boxing fraternity as this crazy, hard taskmaster,' he told The Guardian. 'He is – but there's a method to that madness. It turned out to be a genius move as it motivated Daniel.' Daniel isn't the only bruiser to graduate from his father's school of combat. His sister Caroline is the WBC lightweight champion, his brother prince had some amateur fights, while his brother Solomon often trains with Daniel. Given all of this, you'd expect Stanley to have some sort of background in the sport. Not so. In fact, he actively disliked boxing when he was growing up. 'I got punched in the nose once and never went back,' he said. Stanley was born in west London to a pair of Grenadian immigrants. By 16, he was the father of twins and homeless. This was no salubrious upbringing. His bed for the night was the hard floor of a laundrette. What he did have was an entrepreneurial spirit. The details are hard to independently verify, but Stanley picked himself out of the doldrums with one of the old-fashioned routes up the social ladder - by becoming a market trader. Posters were his game. London, New York, and the Caribbean were his playground. He claims that by age 23, he was the most successful street trader in the world, forking in millions. 'We were taking ten grand every Sunday at Camden Market,' he said in a different interview with The Times. His first week in New York raked in $40,000. 'I had the gift of the gab back then. There was no one in New York taking money like me.' An extraterrestrial-themed poster banked him a fortune. 'I had a few artists draw me some images and I came out with a poster called, "Take me to your dealer." 'It was an alien landing on earth passing over a Rizla, and it just blew up. That poster sold millions because people started wholesaling from me. I sold 80,000 copies to someone in France.' The profit margins were reportedly so good, at least according to him, that you wonder why more people don't go into making posters. Each one, he says, cost just 5p to produce but sold for £2 - off print runs of 2,000. While he was no boxer himself, Stanley maintains that their ancestry holds the key. One such forebear, Silvia Dubois, was an 18th-century slave and bare-knuckle boxer in New Jersey. A single punch almost killed her slave mistress and cost her her life - but instead she was let free. Often boxers tell us stories of pent-up aggression, of taking out their frustrations with the world on the bags in the gym to keep themselves from darker pursuits. When he was five years old he broke the world record for the most consecutive push-ups completed by a child at that age Daniel describes a different childhood - he says that when he wasn't boxing, he was distracting himself with other activities such as chess, board games, and siwmming. Father Charles felt it was too dangerous to have his kids grow up in schools and hanging around on the streets - he cites the dangers of growing up in London, particularly for a family of their background, as a motive for raising his kids behind closed doors. Their few ventures into the public arena often consisted of a boxing gym trip. he did a circuit of amateur clubs in London: 'Repton, Dale Youth, Lynn, West Ham, Fisher and Islington.' Eventually it made him a British amateur champion. A commonwealth titlist. Then a professional with a record of 22 wins from 25 fights, including 21 knockouts. Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic, Anthony Joshua, all dispatched by his devastating right hand. To this day, while Dubois has a fleet of trainers around him, his dad remains influential. And whoever he is preparing for, his father will come out with the same motivational line: Your opponent is working harder than you. Daniel's cloistered upbringing has an evident impact on his life even today. His phone, it is understood, does not even have the internet on it. Does he even know videos of his dad's party were leaked? Does he even care that people are talking about it? For all of the reaction on social media to the revelry, which has seen Stanley painted as some sort of traitor to the British boxing establishment, the man who jeopardised our chance to have a unified heavyweight champion again, Daniel's opinion of his father is the polar opposite. We return to the question of where he would have been without Stanley, and Dynamite's answer is crystal clear. Father Dubois says he made millions from being a market trader, selling cheap posters Sadly Daniel could not match Usyk in the ring, losing to the Ukrainian 11 years his senior 'I wouldn't be here without him,' he told Boxing News. '[My upbringing has] prepared and strengthened me. Sometimes you have to go through hell to get to paradise.'
Daily Mail
21-07-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Daniel Dubois had to' WALK into Wembley after chaotic journey involving dad's party and accreditation nightmare' before brutal KO by Oleksandr Usyk
Daniel Dubois endured a difficult build-up to his undisputed heavyweight title match with Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday and arrived at Wembley later than many had expected, according to a report. The British fighter faced the toughest test of his career in the national stadium, suffering defeat for just the third time as a professional - with one of the other two also coming against Usyk. Dynamite had been given a slight chance of victory by some punters on the back of his demolition of Anthony Joshua last autumn, but many had backed Usyk to get the job done once again and unify the heavyweight division for a second time. So Dubois needed his preparation to be perfect, and, according to The Times, it wasn't - with the 27-year-old thought to have only arrived at Wembley less than 90 minutes before he was set to walk to the ring. It is thought he arrived at around 8:20pm, with events surrounding his father thought to have triggered the chaotic build-up. Things seemed to go south on the day of the fight, with Dubois' dad, Stanley, reportedly becoming 'agitated' by a report that Dubois was going to earn £150million for the fight, when the actual fee was around £10m. Daniel Dubois endured a tough build-up to his fight against Oleksandr Usyk due to circumstances surrounding his dad Stanley (right) Dubois was knocked out in the fifth round of his undisputed heavyweight title fight against Oleksandr Usyk It has, though, emerged that Stanley had a party on the day and took Dubois to Wembley himself - with the fighter arriving less than 90 minutes before he was due to walk to the ring Stanley is thought to have hosted a party on the day of the fight with dozen of people attending, even though Dubois still lives at the family mansion in Essex too. He is said to have not known all of the guests well and at one stage left to go for a drive. Dubois' journey to the stadium was reportedly delayed after Stanley requested extra vehicles to take the entourage to the venue, and Dubois was taken to the venue by Stanley, with only one of the vehicles accredited. That resulted in Dubois walking to the stadium on foot, with his dad having parked in the car park. A video clip is reported to show Stanley heavily involved in the entrance to the stadium, with the former champion's father reportedly threatening that Dubois would not proceed if his entourage was not allowed in. Stanley was in Dubois' corner during the fight. He threw in the towel when his son was knocked down by Usyk for a second time - with the bout coming to an end in the fifth round. Stanley, whose real name is Dave, homeschooled Dubois as a child and has played a huge part in his rise to the top of boxing. Speaking in a lengthy interview with The Times, Daniel, alongside his Stanley, revealed the brutal yet enjoyable training program he had been put on as a child which included laps around their council estate and never ending push-ups which left visible scars. The workouts began when he was about five years old with his father running a disciplined ship. Stanley is said to have threatened to not allow Dubois to enter the arena if his entourage wasn't permitted It all caused for a chaotic build to the fight on Saturday, with Dubois coming up short in the ring 'My dad put a lot of work into me, so I got the full brunt of the force. He's not crazy strict, he's just disciplined,' he said. Although the family was living in a council estate during Dubois' upbringing, it didn't stop Stanley from implementing a tough training regime. The dad of 11, including Caroline Dubois - the interim WBC women's lightweight champion - managed to get very inventive when it came to ensuring his son reached his peak both mentally and physically. Stanley also revealed that sometimes he wouldn't feed Daniel until he had completed his workout.
Times
06-07-2025
- Sport
- Times
One punch from immortality: the extraordinary story of Daniel Dubois
On a stiflingly hot day in June, the world heavyweight champion boxer Daniel Dubois walks into his gym in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, without so much as a nod or a word of acknowledgment to his training team. 'I used to take offence and say, 'Good morning, Daniel,' but it's not because he doesn't want to say hello. He's programmed,' says his trainer, Don Charles, who once coached a young Anthony Joshua. 'I've been doing this for 25-odd years. I've never met anyone like Daniel — and I'm not likely to either. It's extraordinary.' For the next two hours Charles leads Dubois, 27, through a series of punching drills using a pair of mitts. The sound echoes like gunshots around the steel barn, spooking the horses in the neighbouring field. Sweat pours from his 6ft 5in, 18st frame. All the while Dubois's equally imposing father, Stanley (who is also known as Dave), watches from a wooden bench at the ringside without ever removing his heavy coat. Beads of moisture begin to trickle down his forehead too. The spell breaks when Charles signals an end to the session. Dubois rips the tape off his hands, revealing a striking row of scars on his knuckles. These kind of marks are a workplace hazard for any boxer, however Dubois explains that they don't stem from throwing punches but rather from a regimen of home workouts that began when he was about five years old. Stanley, the staunchly Christian father of 11 children born from two marriages, raised the seven youngest, including Daniel, by himself in a council flat in Deptford, southeast London. Every morning, instead of attending school, the children would do press-ups on closed fists in the living room while reciting Psalm 144:1 from the Bible. 'I kept it on a spiritual level. I would walk into the room and say, 'Blessed', and they would say, 'Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who strengthens my hands for war and my fingers for battle.' We were on a mission and they were operating like soldiers from a young age. They wouldn't eat or drink [until they were finished]. That made them into who they are today,' Stanley, 64, says. 'It just became normal to do them for three or four hours,' Dubois adds stoically. Dubois is now on the cusp of becoming the most decorated British heavyweight of this century. Since turning professional at 19 (much to the dismay of Team GB, who believed he could win an Olympic gold medal as an amateur), Dubois has won 22 of his 24 fights; 21 by knockout. In September he knocked out Anthony Joshua, who was eight years his senior, in front of a postwar record crowd of 96,000 at Wembley Stadium. Now, on July 19, he will face Oleksandr Usyk, against whom both Joshua and Tyson Fury twice fell short, for the undisputed heavyweight title. The last Briton to earn this distinction was Lennox Lewis in 1999. 'He's been through the trials and tribulations. He's the king-slayer,' Lewis said recently of Dubois. In Stanley's mind it is his son's destiny. Before Daniel was born Stanley claims he was 'visited by spirits' who instructed him to put his future progeny into boxing and mould them into champions. Caroline, 24, the middle sibling of the seven, also became a world champion last year, making Dubois and her the first British brother and sister to simultaneously hold that title. 'I knew my plan would work because what I saw was as real as you. It was my vision and it turned into theirs. I had the dream and they're delivering it,' Stanley says. The seven children were all home schooled except for Caroline. Unless they were playing sports, the children rarely socialised outside of the family, nor did they have regular access to the internet. To this day Dubois still lives with Stanley, who cooks all his meals. He is quieter than his father, a little awkward, with stilted conversation and a goofy smile. He has never tried a sip of alcohol and he doesn't have a smartphone. Stanley's methods have drawn concern from the authorities more than once, but Dubois compares his father to a prophet. He sees himself as his disciple. 'To me it never felt strict or like I was being forced. I love doing this,' Dubois says. 'It was the discipline of my father, keeping us safe and out of the way of distractions. We never looked at our surroundings too much. We just looked at where we were going — the training, the journey. It's like a force we've created. He had the vision and we've been carrying it through.' The fight against Usyk, 38, arguably the greatest heavyweight since Lewis, is the culmination of the apparition that has governed their lives. Dubois is expected to earn more than £5 million if he wins. 'Where can you go from undisputed? It is the ultimate,' Stanley says. 'I think he's going to slaughter Usyk. And when they don't need me any more, the job is done.' Charles, 63, has coached enough boxers to know that even the strongest will can evaporate in one punch. Still, he too is swept up in the sense of divine providence. 'If [Stanley] was a cult leader, he's got me,' he says. 'He is mad, granted, but there is a genius living in there. He's almost got this gift to predict things and everything he has told me has materialised.' significant test came last September in the all-British duel with Anthony Joshua. Without even throwing a punch, Dubois had been promoted to IBF champion after Usyk vacated the belt last June. The fight at Wembley was his chance to win the belt in the ring. On the day of the fight Stanley threw a party for about thirty of his friends at the family home in Abridge, Essex. From there they left for the stadium in a convoy of luxury cars and continued their revelry in Dubois's dressing room until his horrified promoter, Frank Warren, intervened and threw out anyone who was not part of the immediate team. 'We were dancing and having a great time. We weren't worried. It was like we had already won. We were celebrating,' Stanley says. The crowd, however, were behind Joshua, who treated Dubois with derision. Despite being the official titleholder, Dubois was made to walk to the ring first. He earned about £3.5 million, less than half Joshua's earnings. Almost as soon as the first bell rang, it was obvious who would win. Dubois knocked Joshua down in the first round, a left hook sent him sprawling again in the third and Joshua was down once more in the fourth. The knockout in the fifth was sickening as a right hand crumpled Joshua face first into the canvas. 'I was ready to prove that I am a world champion — and I did it. He was the man when I was growing up and I took the baton from him,' says Dubois, who was 17 years old when he first trained with Joshua. 'I feel like we are on a journey from the womb to the tomb. We haven't achieved the dream yet. We've got to beat Usyk now, but that was a step in the right direction.' Dubois has already fought the Ukrainian once before, in Poland in August 2023. After the Russia invasion in 2022, Usyk had driven into Kyiv as thousands fled and signed up with a local territorial defence battalion, patrolling the streets with a machinegun. His sporting success was seen as a symbol of the country's resistance, an inspiration to soldiers on the front lines, and many Ukrainians crossed the border to support him in Wroclaw for the Dubois fight. Usyk stopped Dubois in the ninth round, but the fight was marred by controversy. In the fifth round Dubois had dropped Usyk with an uppercut to the lower abdomen, but the referee ruled that it was below the beltline — and therefore illegal — and gave the champion several minutes to recover. Dubois and his team maintain it was a perfect shot and believe the officials were biased. 'I have sympathy for Usyk because I too was in a war. He's a special fighter, he's a genius, but there is no way to dress it up …' Charles says. He was a Biafran child soldier in the Nigerian civil war, who cleaned guns and survived on bushmeat after his village decamped to the jungle. His family moved to the UK in 1974. Dubois has never been one to bother with boxing's ritual trash talk, but the emphatic nature of his win against Joshua helped exorcise the lingering sense of injustice. 'I'm full of confidence now. I guess you get that when you've won a world title. You feel like the man again,' he says. 'I'm just in fight mode. We had Usyk close. I've been in there with him, so I know what to expect and I'm going to take it to him.' Dubois's youngest brother, Solomon, 12, nods approvingly while skipping in the corner of the gym. They live with Stanley in an eight-bedroom mansion in Essex, which they bought in 2020 for £1.5 million. Stanley's white and burgundy Rolls-Royce sits on the driveway, dwarfing Daniel's Porsche 911. The home has a fully equipped gym and there is a large swimming pool in the back garden. Inside, a giant wooden sculpture of a lion dominates the hallway — Dubois is named after Daniel, the prophet who was thrown into the den. Another of a crocodile guards the living room, which is quite bare except for a beautiful harp. 'I've been having a couple of lessons a week,' Dubois says. Solomon, who Stanley says is the most talented boxer in the family and competes in national competitions, plays the piano and the saxophone. Also home schooled, he is being tutored in Mandarin because his father wants him to become a star in China. Stanley puts his spiritual vision down to his belief that he is a descendant of the Israelites. As a child he was no fan of boxing. 'I got punched in the nose once and never went back,' he says. The child of Grenadian immigrants, he was raised in west London but became homeless at 16 years old after fathering twins and slept on the floor of a laundrette. He then made a small fortune as a market trader selling posters in London, New York and the Caribbean in the 1980s. It was around this time that he met his second wife, Michelle, the mother of Dubois and his six younger siblings. They agreed Stanley would raise the children by himself, although he says they are still in contact with their mother. 'I sort of took control of everything because I'm a master of what I do and anyone at that time could see that,' he says. In Deptford Stanley's unorthodox approach to child-raising attracted scrutiny. Dubois says he got his own bedroom because he was 'the chosen one', but space in the flat was limited. 'You can do amazing things in a stable like where Jesus was born,' Stanley says dismissively. Once, when the siblings were running laps around the estate, a police officer stopped them and asked if they were being forced to exercise. They shook their heads and from the balcony Stanley shooed the officer away. 'They'd prefer it if they were burgling someone's house,' he bellows so loudly his eyes bulge. 'I don't think I was strict. I think I saved them from the world because is not a very pleasant place if you are a young black kid in south London. There were a lot of crazy things happening in the community, a lot of stabbings, a lot of kids getting murdered. I wasn't going to send my children into that situation, so I kept them on the straight and narrow.' At the time women's boxing was still banned in many amateur gyms. According to Stanley, after coaches realised Caroline had been disguising herself as 'Colin' so she could fight against boys as a nine-year-old, they began 'harassing' him until he relented and sent her to school. Dubois went to his first boxing class aged seven at the Peacock Gym in Canning Town, where Lewis once trained. Stanley invited scoffs when he introduced Dubois as the future heavyweight champion of the world, but his son's athleticism and focus was undeniable. 'I used to chase the other kids around the ring. They had no idea what we were doing at home,' Dubois says, laughing. To bulk Dubois up, Stanley used to cook him an entire chicken for breakfast every day. 'I was amazed he could eat it,' he says. 'I just remember stuffing it in my mouth, but I was training really hard,' Dubois adds. When he was 12, one of his opponents was so afraid to fight him that he vomited on the floor. Dubois's aura in the ring made his awkwardness outside of it more pronounced. 'At a certain age I just got so into myself and shy,' he admits. When Stanley took him to the markets and asked him to call customers over to their poster stall, Dubois would freeze and stare back at him blankly. 'They were coming from isolation in a way. They'd not been in the classroom or in the playground, so they didn't really know how to interact with people,' Stanley says. Dubois didn't seek out friends when trying other sports such as swimming and the javelin. 'Discipline as much as training becomes a way of life,' Dubois says. Their father's domineering influence eventually caused a rift in the Dubois family. Caroline, who represented Team GB at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, abruptly left the home with two of her younger siblings two years ago. 'I went to school, my brothers didn't. I used to travel a lot [for international amateur competitions]. I think that helped open up my mind, helped change my perspective. I saw how other people treated their children. I saw what was acceptable and what I wanted to accept. My boundaries got bigger,' she told the boxing website Seconds Out in October. Stanley is reluctant to be drawn on the split — it is believed Caroline has estranged herself from him and Dubois — but he remains steadfast about his parenting style. Once, when he took Solomon to the hospital with a stomach ache, a concerned nurse reported him to social services. 'They phoned me up and said, 'Why isn't Solomon at school?' I said, 'Look, my kids don't need any help because my son Daniel is 19 and he's already a millionaire and he never went to school. I think you might need some help from me!' he says, erupting into laughter. Dubois doesn't seem sure if he will ever move out. Stanley still drives him to every gym session and the pair are rarely ever separated outside of media duties and menial tasks, though Stanley does leave the room to let Dubois speak for himself. Dubois was reported to be dating Raissa Foxx, a Brazilian influencer, last year. She gave birth to a son, Zion, in March, but Dubois has not commented on their relationship. The only time he has lived away from the family home for a sustained period was after he joined the GB Boxing team in January 2015 and stayed in a flat in Sheffield four nights a week. 'I got homesick a lot. I used to call my dad and tell him how shit it was, but I just did my thing, beat these guys up and got as much experience as I could,' he says. After word spread that he had outdone Joshua in training, the promoter Frank Warren persuaded Dubois to sign a lucrative professional contract instead of pursuing an Olympic gold medal in Tokyo. Dubois breezed through his first 15 fights, knocking out all but one of his opponents. A bout against another former GB Boxing team-mate, the 2016 Olympic silver medallist Joe Joyce, in November 2020 was supposed to be the launchpad to a world title. Dubois was ahead on the judges' scorecards when he suddenly knelt down during the tenth round, prompting the referee to start counting to ten. He remained hunched over until the fight was called off, dabbing at a hideous swelling that had formed around his left eye that Joyce had been targeting with merciless precision. The backlash afterwards was unsympathetic. David Haye, a former world heavyweight champion, who Dubois had looked up to as a teenager, publicly accused the 23-year-old of quitting, the cardinal sin of boxing. Back in the dressing room, Dubois admitted the pain had been unbearable. 'It's shooting into my brain,' he said. He was rushed to hospital but the doctors said they couldn't operate until the swelling had eased. 'I heard them talking about me losing my eyesight,' Dubois recalls. Six days later a specialist confirmed that his orbital bone was fractured in several places and he had retinal bleeding. 'A lot of people jumped on the bandwagon [criticising him] but it comes back to that thing of what does a boxer have to give? His eyesight?' Warren says. 'He actually saved his career by taking that knee.' Dubois reflects on the criticism unemotionally: 'I didn't give myself time to mope over it. I thought I'll turn them into my fans.' Dubois sacked his trainer, Martin Bowers, afterwards and steadily rebuilt his career with four victories under Shane McGuigan, who had already been training Caroline. However, the family split in 2023 forced him to look for a new trainer again. With just 14 weeks until the fight against Usyk, he teamed up with Charles in Finchley, north London. At such short notice the veteran trainer did what he could. 'The trust wasn't there when we were telling him what to do,' Charles says. After the defeat Charles brought a sports psychologist into the gym. 'They lasted two weeks and got the boot, though not from me,' he says. However, their insight proved valuable. 'He said, 'Have you noticed that when you speak to Daniel, he looks to his father first? Use that.' Previous coaches had tried to diminish Stanley's influence. Charles instead encouraged him to sit front and centre during training so that he could help relay his instructions. 'When the dad says something to him, it enters. He takes it as gospel,' Charles says. Stanley is more forthright. 'When [the children] hear my voice it's like they're hearing the voice of God.' Charles concedes that he and Stanley still 'lock horns', but there is a deep mutual respect. 'He's a big man,' Charles says. 'People fear him before they get to know him, but there's a sweetness in there. What I've managed to do — and it's been difficult — is to tap into that.' Dubois has been transformed by the partnership with Charles. In December 2023 he won a gruelling comeback fight against Jarrell Miller that many had expected him to lose. 'There was a bit of shedding the demons. I just went out and gave it everything,' Dubois says. The victory steeled what many perceived to be Dubois's mental weakness. Previously shy and reserved at media events, he began to come out of his shell. When his next opponent, the Croatian heavyweight Filip Hrgovic, said he had 'no balls' in a prefight interview, Dubois turned to the host and said, 'Let's put this c*** to sleep.' 'I nearly fell off my chair,' Warren says, laughing. 'I'd never heard him swear.' Dubois won in the eighth round. Stanley used to play the young Dubois old tapes of heavyweight fights so he could picture his future. One of their favourites to watch was Lennox Lewis. 'My dad always said I'd be a champion like him,' Dubois says. An extraordinary combination of faith and discipline has now brought him to within one fight of that rarefied air. 'Ultimately, it's about how you're going to make and change history,' Dubois says. In his and Stanley's minds, it has already been written.
Times
05-07-2025
- Sport
- Times
Daniel Dubois: Instead of school, I did press-ups while reciting the Bible
O n a stiflingly hot day in June, the world heavyweight champion boxer Daniel Dubois walks into his gym in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, without so much as a nod or a word of acknowledgment to his training team. 'I used to take offence and say, 'Good morning, Daniel,' but it's not because he doesn't want to say hello. He's programmed,' says his trainer, Don Charles, who once coached a young Anthony Joshua. 'I've been doing this for 25-odd years. I've never met anyone like Daniel — and I'm not likely to either. It's extraordinary.' For the next two hours Charles leads Dubois, 27, through a series of punching drills using a pair of mitts. The sound echoes like gunshots around the steel barn, spooking the horses in the neighbouring field. Sweat pours from his 6ft 5in, 18st frame. All the while Dubois's equally imposing father, Stanley (who is also known as Dave), watches from a wooden bench at the ringside without ever removing his heavy coat. Beads of moisture begin to trickle down his forehead too.
