Daniel Dubois has long been heralded for his destructive one-punch knockout power.
As an 18-year-old amateur, he is rumoured to have rocked Anthony Joshua in sparring – a story he added further plausibility to in September by knocking out AJ at Wembley Stadium.
Dubois sparred with Joshua during his time as a Team GB podium squad member up in Sheffield.
There he also shared the ring with another decorated amateur in future Olympic bronze medallist Frazer Clarke.
Fellow Team GB teammate Anthony Fowler, watched Dubois exchange leather with both heavyweights and while he claims ‘Triple D’ turned Joshua’s “legs to jelly” he also insists the heavy-handed Londoner snapped Clarke’s ankle with a clubbing blow.
“I remember he hit Frazer Clarke so hard that he snapped his ankle,” Fowler told talkSPORT.com.
“He fell to the floor and snapped his ankle. After that, he was walking around with a cast so he’s always had that real power Dubois.”
Clarke recently admitted to being put down by Dubois in sparring during an interview with Seconds Out but he didn’t mention anything about a broken ankle.
“I have no shame in saying it, Daniel Dubois put me on my a*** with a left hook years ago and he was young,” he said.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, this f***ing kid is something else.’ Obviously, I got back up and carried on sparring it happens in our division.
“But yeah, I’ve been on the side of the ring where these two have really had good exchanges and stuff.”
Dubois ended up having a successful 75-fight amateur career, winning two English schoolboy titles and two junior ABAs.
However, rather than following in the footsteps of Joshua and Clarke by going down the Olympic route he instead chose to turn over as a professional in 2017.
Early on in his career, Dubois was branded a quitter by several members of the boxing fraternity after seeing out counts on one knee against Joe Joyce and Oleksandr Usyk.
But a pair of gutsy wins over Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic went a long way in shifting that narrative.
His victory over the latter led to him picking up the IBF interim title, which was subsequently upgraded to a full world title in June when Usyk was forced to vacate the red and gold strap.
He then went on to defend it in a upset win over Joshua three months later and is now set to return to the ring in February.
It was initially thought that Dubois and Joshua would have an immediate sequel but negotiations have since collapsed, resulting in his promoter Queensberry entering into negotiations with other contenders.
IBF president Daryl Peoples confirmed earlier this month that Dubois can make an optional defence of his title against any ranked fighter before April 22.
At present, the frontrunner is Agit Kabayel who recently pulled out of an IBF final eliminator with Martin Bakole and is the highest ranked heavyweight by the major sanctioning body.
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DAZN currently has the exclusive rights to Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom and will have Queensberry’s star-studded stable from April 2025, which includes heavyweight champions Daniel Dubois, Zhilei Zhang, Fabio Wardley and Moses Itauma.
