On April 27th, unbeaten British heavyweight prospect Daniel Dubois continued his winning ways, stopping Ghanaian Richard Lartey in the fourth round inside of Wembley Arena. Facing perhaps his toughest test in his young professional career, Dubois survived some big shots in the third before closing the show strongly and ending the fight one round later.
Dubois moved his record to 11-0 (10 KO’s) and it’s only natural for their to be comparisons and fight chatter of him against fellow prospects and contenders like Nathan Gorman and Joe Joyce.
Dubois talks a good game and if you get to speaking with the Greenwich fighter, he will tell you he has put bigger men on the floor before. During a recent interview with Telegraph Sport, he spoke about his sparring days in the past with current IBF. WBA, and WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua during his time with the GB Olympic squad.
“Not a lot of guys [on the GB squad] wanted to get in the ring with me,” Dubious said back in 2017. “Sparring with Joshua was helpful in letting me know what I need to do as a man, and a fighter, and the lessons I need in boxing.”
Dubious took the conversation further, even implying he dropped the heavyweight champion.
“[Putting him down] let me know that I have power in both my hands, but other than that I take it for what it is; I learned from the experience,” Dubious added. “There is still a long way to go, but I believe I will be number one in the world someday soon.”
But this is boxing and sometimes people can stretch the truth. Commonwealth amateur champion Frazer Clarke says he is “99 percent” certain that such claims were simply made up by Dubois’ team. During a chat with Sky Sports in April, Clarke opened up.
“I have never seen him put Joshua down,” Clarke said. “I am sure, I am at 99 percent of the spars and he has hit him flush and has probably shook him up a bit, but the way they make out that he put him down on his backside, it just never happened.
I don’t think it was Daniel, it’s the people around him.”
Clarke believes that Joshua is such a stand-up character that he would have admitted it if it actually happened.
“I can honestly say if it was true, Joshua would turn round and say ‘Yeah, it happened, it was true’, but he hasn’t,” said Clarke. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s sparring and people take big shots and I have seen him [Joshua] take a big shot off Daniel and I’ve seen him give Daniel a big shot.”
Whether or not the stories are true, what could be next for the 21-year old Dubois?
Reportedly he has agreed to a deal for a British title fight with streaking countryman Joe Joyce, who is fresh for a sixth-round TKO demolition over former WBC champion Bermane Stiverne.
Joyce returns on the undercard of Billy Joe Saunders’ bout against Shefat Isufi in Stevenage on May 18 and seems interest in meeting Dubois.
“Fighting him is an option I’ve got a fight in Stevenage, that’s a good warm-up, then I should be out again in July,” said Joyce.
