Daniel Dubois will be the final man to speak at every media event all week. He will walk to the ring second on Saturday night and, when he gets there, he will be announced as the IBF heavyweight champion of the world.
Dubois, 21-2 (20 KOs), will pay little attention to the pre-fight pageantry. The 27 year old may be defending a title but he knows he can gain much, much more by taking Anthony Joshua’s prized scalp when the Londoners meet at Wembley Stadium.
“I think he’s the main man up there – the main guy who’s holding all the keys,” Dubois told DAZN. “He’s got the crown and the keys to everything you could ever imagine so I need to go out there and take it from him.
“Turn him into an old man in the ring and just go out there and rip it from him. That big win – that massive win for greatness.”
Beating Joshua, 28-3 (25 KOs), looks a much stiffer task than it would have been 12 months ago. After a rocky period that culminated in a pair of defeats by Oleksandr Usyk, the 34-year-old two-time unified champion looks to have had his confidence restored by a string of four successive wins – and his brutal demolition of the mixed martial artist Francis Ngannou was his most destructive performance for years.
Dubois is in his best ever physical and mental form. After submitting to inside the distance defeats by Joe Joyce and Usyk, he proved himself to be a top-level heavyweight by stopping Filip Hrgovic in June. He has the firepower and ambition to truly test Joshua’s rediscovered confidence.
“I don’t think he can be that same guy,” Dubois said. “I think he’s still a good fighter though. People are easily swayed in this game. He fought an MMA guy and he fought [Otto] Wallin.
“Going past all that anyway, I believe this is the right moment. This is all about timing this sport. Now is my time and I need to make it my time; make it my era.”
Dubois possesses a damaging jab and a concussive straight right hand but he has always fought with a seek-and-destroy mentality and commits fully to his combinations when he has an opponent hurt.
Although he has shared the ring with Joyce, Usyk and Hrgovic, he hasn’t stepped forwards and into range to engage with somebody with Joshua’s explosiveness and power. If Dubois stays true to himself amid the most intense atmosphere he has ever experienced, things could get very interesting, very quickly.
“I aim to knock him out,” he said before revealing his mindset going into the fight. “I aim to knock out anyone I get in the ring with. Just go out and not put too many words out there. Don’t make a fool of myself by saying what I’m gonna do. I don’t wanna be a fool like that. I wanna make a fool out of him by knocking him out. This is the game. This is the sport. This is where it tests you as a person and as a man.”
John Evans has contributed to a number of well-known publications and websites for over a decade. You can follow John on X @John_Evans79