Daniel Dubois, at 25, remains the junior member of the heavyweight pack, but the Londoner is not one for hanging around.
Dubois makes the first defense of his WBA “regular” heavyweight title against South Africa’s Kevin Lerena in the chief support to Tyson Fury’s WBC heavyweight title defense against Derek Chisora at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
He finds himself in a key position as, according to the rotation system, Dubois would be the next mandatory challenger to either Oleksandr Usyk, or the winner of a Fury-Usyk fight if that is agreed.
“I suppose some people might think I have got here quite fast, but I was expecting to get here sooner,” Dubois said.
“It’s been a while since I last fought and it’s good to get back in the ring. It’s going to be amazing, a good atmosphere with the world watching. It’s a hell of a night and I can’t wait to be part of it.
“It’s going to be mental, yeah, looking forward to it.”
It is no surprise Dubois is aiming high. If he had followed the plan that had been earmarked for him, he would have been preparing for the Paris Olympics now. But he stepped off the GB Olympic conveyor belt to go professional early and, despite the setback of losing to Joe Joyce in 2020, things are going well now.
For the past two years he has been trained by Shane McGuigan and has benefitted not only from McGuigan’s oversight but being in a gym full of hungry young talent.
“Since the Joyce fight, I’ve improved a lot and now is my time to go out there and become a legitimate world champion,” he said. “Like everything in life, you have to be strong and come through all the tough moments.”
“There were lessons I had to learn, that’s all in the past now. I’m a man of the future.”
He does not want to look far past Saturday at the moment and insists he is not overlooking Lerena.
“He’s a guy out looking for a rep,” he said. “I’ve got to stop that and destroy him. All I know is that on Saturday, I have a guy in my way, and I’ve got to destroy. I’m just focused on that. That’s all that is on my mind. This is what I’ve been training for the last few months.”
Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 – covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.