Daniel Dubois has not forgotten the other British heavyweights who criticised him for the nature of his defeat to Joe Joyce and has now vowed to exact revenge on all of them.
Dubois was branded a “quitter” by many after his 10th-round stoppage loss at the hands of Joyce back in November 2020 when he suffered a serious eye injury which prevented him from continuing.
He has rebuilt steadily since that night and on Saturday night secured the most significant win of his career, knocking out Trevor Bryan in the fourth round of their clash in Miami to claim the WBA “world” heavyweight title.
Attention has immediately turned towards his next fight and his trainer Shane McGuigan has suggested that fellow Londoner Dillian Whyte, who lost to Tyson Fury in April, could be the perfect opponent on Dubois’s return to Britain.
But the 24-year-old heavyweight says Whyte is just one name on his hitlist.
“A lot of them criticised me then and yeah I definitely will be looking for revenge,” Dubois said.
“I’ll be looking down the list and thinking, ‘right, that one said that about me, that one said that about me’.
“Dillian said that about me so he’s getting it. I’ll be the bad guy again.”
Dubois had assumed the role of the good guy all week here in Miami, as loud-mouth Bryan tried his best to get under the visitor’s skin.
However his taunting, which included many references to that defeat to Joyce, did not affect his performance as Dubois barely put a foot wrong at the Jai-Alai Casino in Miami.
“It was good to have Trevor doing some of that for me, playing the bad guy all week,” Dubois added.
“It was interesting for me and I hope everyone tuned in to all of that back home. I really hope I did everyone proud.
“There was a different feel to everything being in Miami, there’s America and then there’s Miami – it’s like a totally different place and it’s a strange place. But they say it’s the land of opportunity and that’s how it feels for me.
“It was all just an experience. Beforehand my dad had told me just to use it all as a learning experience, that’s exactly what it turned out to be.
“But that’s two in a row here in America so I want my homecoming now. People like Joe Joyce, it will all come back round to them again.”
For now, Dubois will fly back to England for a bit of time off before getting back in the gym, with a return to the ring in September looking most likely.
“I haven’t really got time to celebrate,” he grinned. “I’m knackered.
“All the tension and build-up before it, being for this world title means it’s all in your head building up. It takes it out of you.
“I just want to get home and see my little brothers, Prince and Solomon. I’ve been away for a while so it will be amazing to get back with the family.
“These two weeks have felt like forever, being out here just in my hotel room getting mad. But we’ve pulled it off.
“Solomon would have stayed up late to watch it. He’s a big boxing fan and seeing this will have inspired him I hope.”
On his fighter’s next move, trainer Shane McGuigan added: “The name I said was Dillian Whyte but that is not meant in any way disrespectful.
“It would be a huge step-up for him but I think it would sell out any arena we took it to. It would create a lot of interest because a lot of people will think he isn’t ready for it.
“We need to target a really credible name and ideally someone that has been selling out PPV shows and Dillian has consistently done that.
“There are lots of good heavyweights out there but not all of them are big commercially. We want to make the best but also the biggest fights, that’s not about swerving anyone, it’s just the business. We have to go after people that are going to create a buzz.”
