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Boxing is a cruel sport. When Daniel Dubois dropped to his knees against Joe Joyce and was counted out for the first defeat of his career, it looked like he had been found out.
It looked like he would never meet the expectations that had been raised of him.
Even though he had fractured an eye socket, back then he was tainted with accusations of being ‘a quitter’.
A battling effort against unified champion Oleksandr Usyk began to shift perceptions but still ended in a stoppage defeat.
However halting Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic saw him win the IBF Interim title, later upgraded to their world championship when Usyk vacated the belt.
That set him up to fight Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium next weekend. “It’s been a journey. What I feel has been a resurrection of my career really,” Dubois told Sky Sports.
The Riyadh Season: Joshua vs Dubois event will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Box Office on September 21.
“I’ve had to resurrect my career. I’ve had to come back and face everything that I might have been shying away from before. Criticism. People saying whatever they had to say. But I don’t want to go too deep into it. I’ve resurrected my career and just keep going now,” Dubois explained.
“I’ve resurrected it. It’s not over yet. Every day’s a battle, I could fall back right into where I was but I’m going to keep chipping away and keep going forward.”
It leaves him highly motivated to silence all the doubts around him once and for all. A decisive victory over Joshua, the former unified world champion who used to hold the IBF belt, would do just that.
“I was down and now I’m coming back up. There’s a deeper meaning to it than just me and AJ in the ring. Everything’s on the line. Who’s got the stronger will, who’s really conquered their demons and who’s really ready to move forward and I believe that’s me and I’m ready to go out there and show it,” Dubois said.
He wants to secure the victory in style.
“I aim to knock him out. That’s the programme. That’s the mindset, that’s the intention coming into this fight. I’m going to focus my whole life into destroying it and just being a good destroyer, a good conqueror,” Dubois said.
“Don’t wait. Go out there. Smash him.
“Go through them. Go through whatever I have to go through… No retreat, no surrender. And go out there and perform like a warrior.”
Anthony Joshua’s heavyweight showdown with Daniel Dubois takes place on Saturday September 21 live on Sky Sports Box Office. Book Joshua v Dubois now!
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