Daniel Dubois (boxer)

Daniel Raphael Dubois^[2] (born 6 September 1997) is a British professional boxer who held the WBA interim heavyweight title from June to August 2021. He has held multiple regional heavyweight championships, including the British and Commonwealth titles from 2019 to 2020. As an amateur, he was a five-time national junior titlist and British champion. He is known for his punching power and currently holds a 94% knockout-to-win percentage.^[3]

Amateur career[]

His father took him to the boxing gym at the age of nine to stay out of trouble in South London.^[4] He trains at the Peacock Gym in Canning Town, working under Tony and Martin Bowers.^[5][6] Dubois had around 75 amateur bouts. He won two English schoolboy titles, two junior ABAs plus the CYPs. Won the British Seniors. He spent a year and a half as part of the GB Elite set-up in Sheffield and boxed for England around a dozen times, competing at the European Youth championships twice and winning gold medals at multi-nations in Tammer (Finland) and Brandenburg (Germany).^[4] He left the amateurs early with only a handful of senior amateur bouts. He was on the Great Britain Olympic team with the plan to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, however he opted to turn professional instead,^[4] signing with boxing promoter Frank Warren of Queensberry Promotions.^[5]

Professional career[]

Early career[]

Dubois' first fight as a professional was a knockout win in the first 35 seconds of the first round against Marcus Kelly in April 2017.^[7] In his fourth fight, he knocked out Mauricio Barragan, a late substitute, in the second round to win the vacant WBC Youth heavyweight title.^[8][9] In October 2017, he knocked out AJ Carter in the first round to claim the Southern Area heavyweight title.^[10][11] He won the English heavyweight title in his eighth fight in June 2018, beating journeyman Tom Little by stoppage in the fifth round.^[12] He won the WBO European title in March 2019, beating former WBO heavyweight title challenger, Razvan Cojanu, in two rounds.^[13] Dubois was taken the full distance for the first time by veteran Kevin Johnson in October 2018, winning on points after ten rounds,^[14] and beat Richard Lartey in the fourth round in April 2019.^[15][16]

In July 2019, he beat Nathan Gorman by knockout in the fifth round to improve his record to 12 wins, 11 by stoppage, and win the vacant British heavyweight title.^[6][17] Boxing journalist Steve Bunce said he “...fought like an old, seasoned bruiser, his feet flawless, his jab a stiff weapon inherited from relics of the ring”.^[6] BBC boxing correspondent Mike Costello described him as "...one of the brightest prospects in the sport at the moment."^[17]

In his next fight, Dubois faced Ebenezer Tetteh. Dubois blasted Tetteh out in the first round, while dropping him twice in the process.^[18]

After that, Dubois faced Japanese heavyweight Kyotaro Fujimoto. Fujimoto was overmatched from the beginning, fighting to survive from the opening bell. In the second round, Dubois connected on a right hand that knocked out Fujimoto.^[19]

On 29 August, 2020, Dubois had another dominant win, this time against Ricardo Snijders. Dubois managed to drop his opponent three times in the first round. The first round would end up being the last that Snijders would survive, as the referee waved the fight off after Dubois dropped his opponent for the fourth time.^[20]

Rise up the ranks[]

Dubois vs. Joyce[]

On 28 November 2020, Dubois made the first defence of his British and Commonwealth titles, alongside his WBC Silver and WBO International titles, in a highly anticipated domestic matchup against Joe Joyce at the Church House in London, with the vacant European title also on the line. In a closely contested fight that had implications for future world title hopes, Dubois was landing the harder and cleaner punches while Joyce stayed at range behind powerful jabs. The repeated accurate jabs from Joyce caused swelling to the left eye of Dubois from the second round. In the tenth, after another hard jab landed on his now-swollen-shut eye, Dubois went down on one knee, allowing the referee to count him out to suffer the first loss of his career.^[21] Following the fight it was revealed that Dubois had suffered a broken left orbital bone and nerve damage around the eye.^[22]

Dubois vs. Dinu[]

After a layoff of over six months, Dubois returned to the ring on 5 June 2021 to face Bogdan Dinu in Telford. Dubois won the bout by second-round knockout, winning the vacant WBA interim heavyweight title in the process. The win also made him the mandatory challenger for the WBA (Regular) title held by undefeated Trevor Bryan.^[23]

Dubois vs. Cusumano[]

Dubois made his U.S. debut on the undercard of Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley on 29 August 2021. He faced Joe Cusumano, and prevailed via first-round technical knockout victory. In his post-fight interview, he expressed interest in challenging Trevor Bryan for his WBA (Regular) title.^[24]

Personal life[]

Dubois' father is from Grenada.^[25] His younger sister Caroline Dubois is also a boxer. She has represented Great Britain and in 2018 became the -60kg European Junior, World Youth and Youth Olympic champion.^[26]

Professional boxing record[]

No.	Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round, time	Date	Location	Notes
18	Win	17–1	Joe Cusumano	TKO	1 (10), 2:10	29 Aug 2021	Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland, Ohio, US
17	Win	16–1	Bogdan Dinu	KO	2 (12), 0:31	5 Jun 2021	Telford International Centre, Telford, England	Won vacant WBA interim heavyweight title
16	Loss	15–1	Joe Joyce	KO	10 (12), 0:36	28 Nov 2020	Church House, London, England	Lost British, Commonwealth, WBC Silver and WBO International heavyweight titles; For vacant European heavyweight title
15	Win	15–0	Ricardo Snijders	TKO	2 (12), 0:20	29 Aug 2020	BT Sport Studios, London, England	Retained WBO International heavyweight title
14	Win	14–0	Kyotaro Fujimoto	KO	2 (12), 2:10	21 Dec 2019	Copper Box Arena, London, England	Retained WBO International heavyweight title; Won vacant WBC Silver heavyweight title
13	Win	13–0	Ebenezer Tetteh	TKO	1 (12), 2:10	27 Sep 2019	Royal Albert Hall, London, England	Won vacant Commonwealth and WBO International heavyweight titles
12	Win	12–0	Nathan Gorman	KO	5 (12), 2:41	13 Jul 2019	The O2 Arena, London, England	Won vacant British heavyweight title
11	Win	11–0	Richard Lartey	KO	4 (10), 1:50	27 Apr 2019	The SSE Arena, London, England	Won vacant WBO Global heavyweight title
10	Win	10–0	Răzvan Cojanu	KO	2 (10), 2:48	8 Mar 2019	Royal Albert Hall, London, England	Won vacant WBO European heavyweight title
9	Win	9–0	Kevin Johnson	PTS	10	6 Oct 2018	Leicester Arena, Leicester, England
8	Win	8–0	Tom Little	TKO	5 (10), 0:58	23 Jun 2018	The O2 Arena, London, England	Won vacant English heavyweight title
7	Win	7–0	DL Jones	TKO	3 (10), 2:23	24 Feb 2018	York Hall, London, England	Retained Southern Area heavyweight title
6	Win	6–0	Dorian Darch	TKO	2 (10), 0:51	9 Dec 2017	Copper Box Arena, London, England
5	Win	5–0	AJ Carter	KO	1 (10), 0:48	16 Sep 2017	Copper Box Arena, London, England	Won vacant Southern Area heavyweight title
4	Win	4–0	Mauricio Barragan	KO	2 (10), 1:41	8 Jul 2017	Copper Box Arena, London, England	Won vacant WBC Youth heavyweight title
3	Win	3–0	David Howe	KO	1 (4), 0:40	20 May 2017	Copper Box Arena, London, England
2	Win	2–0	Blaise Mendouo	TKO	2 (4), 0:48	22 Apr 2017	Leicester Arena, Leicester, England
1	Win	1–0	Marcus Kelly	TKO	1 (4), 0:35	8 Apr 2017	Manchester Arena, Manchester, England

References[]

External links[]

• Boxing record for Daniel Dubois from BoxRec
• Daniel Dubois - Profile, News Archive & Current Rankings at Box.Live