Talk to Daniel Dubois and you get the feeling that most of his formal education was spent watching tapes of old heavyweights. Challenging for a world heavyweight title, albeit the WBA “regular” one, should have a special resonance for any heavyweight.
And while the Casino Miami, near the airport where the fight takes place, might not quite have the same vibe as the Convention Center in Miami Beach, where a young Cassius Clay dethroned Sonny Liston, Dubois is ready to write his own page in history when he faces Trevor Bryan on Saturday.
“I can feel a good energy out here,” Dubois said. “I can feel the power, I am looking good, feeling good.
“It’s up to me how the fight turns out. On paper it’s the toughest fight of my life. I am not taking anything for granted but I think I will put on a devastating performance.”
Dubois, 24, cuts a relaxed figure in Miami, even though his route there was longer than planned after his flight was diverted to Washington DC because of a storm.
“We stayed a night over in Washington and got the flight the next day,” he said. “It was a bit of drama.
“Preparation has gone well, I have added new things and worked hard, same as always. It is down to practice in the gym.
“We have been working in the gym for a good few months and it has been frustrating, just the waiting. You just have to be patient in this game and that is what we have done. Now it is time to deliver.
“It’s good to fight over here, to win over the American audience. It was good to have a taste of it before, now I am back and it’s the big one.”
This week Dubois got to experience a full-on Don King press conference as the 90-year-old promoter held court.
“I grew up watching tapes with Don King, now I’m doing business with him, it’s crazy. Boxing is a small world at this level. After I deliver, I am sure he is going to have a lot of things to say.”
It is 18 months now since Dubois’s sole defeat, when he suffered a badly damaged eye and eventually took a knee against Joe Joyce. His two fights since then, having teamed up with Shane McGuigan, have lasted less than a combined six minutes.
Yet, beat Bryan and Dubois will hope to be next in with the winner of the rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua. If Bryan might not seem to be a huge step up, either Usyk or Joshua certainly would be.
“I learnt a lot after the Joe fight,” Dubois said. “I learnt my lessons and moved on and am a different man now. All you guys are going to be witness to that.
“This fight put me in a good position to fight the winner (of Usyk-Joshua). I hope AJ wins it. I’d be happy to fight the winner next, that’s a great fight to make, but I have to get past Trevor Bryan first.”
Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 – covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.