Daniel Dubois rejected Olympics to turn pro – but sister is gold medal GB hero
Boxing is in Daniel Dubois' blood – but he followed a different path to his Olympic gold medallist sister.
Dubois, 25, was enlisted on Team GB's programme in Sheffield as a teenager, looking a likely candidate for their men's heavyweight contender at Tokyo 2020.
But he made the shock decision to leave three years before the Games were scheduled to be held as a 19-year-old to instead focus of becoming world champion.
Now 20 fights into his professional career, Dubois has a shot at achieving his dream when he steps into the ring against WBA, WBO and IBF champion Oleksandr Usyk at the Tarczynski Arena in Wroclaw, Poland tonight (August 26).
READ MORE: Oleksandr Usyk vs Daniel Dubois: TV channel, how to watch, start time and odds
Daniel Dubois challenges Oleksandr Usyk for the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO heavyweight titles on Saturday night in Poland. You can watch the action live on TNT Sports pay-per-view, with Dubois hoping to cause an upset.
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While he's worked his way into title contention, his younger sister Caroline, 22, took on his Olympics hopes. She won gold at the 2018 Youth Games in Buenos Aires.
Speaking after she qualified for Tokyo, Daniel said about his younger sister: “I wish it was me, but it’s on her. I look forward to going out there and watching her.
"I’m very proud of her and hopefully after she wins the Olympics, she can get onto the pro circuit and do big things there.”
How do you see Usyk vs Dubois ending? Let us know in the comments section.
But things didn't go as planned for Caroline, with her Olympics ending prematurely after being on the end of a harsh split-decision defeat in the women's lightweight quarter-finals.
She's since gone pro, winning her first six fights. Daniel went 15 unbeaten before his first defeat in November 2020 to Joe Joyce – who he'd previously sparred at the Team GB base before Rio 2016.
Joyce expressed his shock at Dubois' decision to cut his amateur career short, telling talkSPORT: "I thought it would be a competitive fight to the finish between him and Frazer Clarke to go to Tokyo 2020, but then he turned pro.
"I was quite surprised. With his age, he could even have stayed on and did the next one in 2024. Twenty six would be a perfect age to turn pro and then he's got all of that experience. Obviously he chose to do like a Mike Tyson route and start a lot younger."
That's all in the past now, of course, and Daniel can vindicate his decision by beating Usyk. Not many have given him a chance of victory, but Caroline has belief and insists it's not her being biased.
"This is heavyweight boxing – the kingdom of the one-punch upsets, the one-punch knockouts," she said when speaking to the Daily Mail.
"I think it’s a really 50/50 fight, I’m not just saying it because he’s my brother. I just think genuinely it’s a 50/50 fight. You’d be stupid not to give Daniel a chance."
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