Resilience over Arrogance

Daniel Dubois arrived at Wembley as the underdog in the betting and was booed during his ring walk, which was scheduled first even though he was the champion (the champions’ entrance is always the last). Being the IBF world heavyweight champion (albeit for bureaucratic reasons after the organisation stripped Usyk of the status) did him no favours. The small signs of disrespect towards Dynamite Dubois are like a summer breeze compared to the storms and hurricanes he has weathered in the past. Like a strong palm tree, he has bent, but never broken.

For years, Dubois has been a target of the most disrespectful fans and media. They branded him a coward and quitter for not standing and trading punches with Joyce and for taking a knee with a closed eye from an orbital fracture that could have cost him his vision. Also, for losing on foreign soil to Usyk, the best heavyweight in the world and one of the pound-for-pound greats. If performed by other fighters with better media relations and social skills, it would have been deemed logical, normal, and even praiseworthy. However, for Dubois, they became a stigma, interpreted as a sign of incompetence in the noble art. It's not about the what, but the who.

Anthony Joshua came into the fight against Dubois with a “Real Deal” aura, more fabricated than earned. After losing his titles in a pair of schooling sessions at the hands of Usyk, his return to the top ranks came with performances where he won more than he was convincing. Part of the public and media, more out of affection and financial interests, re-canonised him without any miracles to justify it.

Joshua, once the greatest star of British boxing, staying in the big leagues brings significant financial rewards to the numerous business hawks. This was made clear by the event being pay-per-view and drawing 98,000 people to Wembley. Among them, the crème de la crème of the scene, like Usyk, Fury, Crawford, and Conor McGregor. A complete scenario in favour of Joshua, led by boxing tycoon Turki, turning Londoner Daniel Dubois into an enemy in his own city.

Experience counts, and despite his many years as a professional, it was Daniel Dubois, not AJ—with his credentials as an Olympic champion, former world champion, and numerous sold-out stadiums—who truly learned from past mistakes. Both his team and the fighter himself knew how to prepare to weather the hostile environment, as they hadn’t done in his defeat to Usyk in Poland, and how to cook his opponent to perfection, as they hadn’t done in his previous loss to Joyce.

Dubois is by no means the best heavyweight in the world, but he has learned to play to his strengths and hide his weaknesses. All by constantly working from humility, without thinking of himself as God's gift to boxing for racking up victories on undercards against decent but non-elite fighters. On the other side, a mythologised Joshua, eyeing another historic bout both athletically and financially against Fury or Usyk, returns to square one. That's what idealism is: in the end, reality always prevails.