Daniel Dubois stunned his much more illustrious opponent in front of a packed Wembley Stadium in London England.  A fifth-round KO win meant Dubois retained his IBF world heavyweight championship and sent a message to the entire division. Having made his professional debut in 2017 and won his first bout just 35 seconds into the first round against Marcus Kelly and soon developed a reputation for ending fights early.

Out of his 22 wins, including the fight against Joshua, Dubois has an impressive 20 KOs to his name. Known as “Dynamite,” the boxer has risen through the ranks and won the WBA title in 2022 after a win over Trevor Bryan. Dubois was elevated to the status of IBF heavyweight champion in June after former undisputed champion of the division Oleksandr Usyk vacated the belt.

While there were doubts over handing him the title, his dominant win over the favorite Joshua has laid to rest any skepticism around his ability. So, with his latest win, let’s take a look at his childhood cultural background played a huge role in his burning passion to prove himself to be the kingpin of the heavyweight division.

Where was Daniel Dubois born? Early life and ethnicity

Daniel Dubois was born in Greenwich, an area in south-east, London, England on September 6, 1997. His father is Dave Dubois, but his mother has kept herself away from the media and little is known about her. His father, Dave, hails from Grenada, an island country, located in the south-eastern Caribbean Sea. Safe to say, there has been a lot of Caribbean influence in his upbringing.

Talking about taking a break from the physically demanding and busy schedule of being a boxer, ‘Dynamite’ told BoxingScene in 2019, “I am taking two weeks off from the gym, I have never been but my dad is from Grenada so it would be good to finally go.”

Dubois has been boxing since he was a child. “I was like a soldier on a mission growing up. It was that type of focus; single-minded,”  the heavyweight boxer said in an interview with The Athletic in 2020. Reportedly, Dubois’ father, a huge boxing fan, started training him when he was a kid, using a small punching bag to teach the basics at home. His father played a key role in his development fostering the values of discipline and hard work in him.

His father started Dubois’s workout regime when he was five. “My dad put a lot of work into me, so I got the full brunt of the force. He’s not crazy strict, he’s just disciplined,” the young pugilist told  The Sunday Times in June. By the time he was six, his father used to take him along to the Peacock Gym.

Dave’s strict measures in training Dubois included not feeding him until he completed his press-ups. Though this may seem like going too far, Dave in an interview with Times before his son’s fight against Joshua revealed that their boxing roots can be traced back to the 18th century.

Dave claimed that they are the descendants of an 18th-century ancestor, Silvia Dubois, an African-American slave, who won her freedom as a bare-knuckle boxer in New Jersey. From a very early age, Dubois was inspired by heavyweights like Muhammad Ali, Lennox Lewis, and Mike Tyson.

Afterward, Dave took him to the renowned amateur club Repton at the age of nine, where he started first competing. During the day most of Dubois’s time was spent at home where he was homeschooled and in the evening he would be in the amateur boxing club.

Apart from Repton, he moved around to other London clubs such as the Lynn, Fisher, and West Ham. As a junior, Dubois won two English schoolboy titles, two junior ABAs, plus the CYPs and began to make a name for himself. In his late teens, he was called up to join the GB Boxing program, which meant moving out of his family home in London and relocating to Sheffield.

What is Daniel Dubois’ nationality? Is he religious?

Daniel Dubois is an English national and his family is staunchly Christian and deeply committed to their faith. Reportedly, Dubois’ father, Dave, had a “vision” that urged him to put his kids into boxing. I told his grandmother and his mother he was going to be a world champion when he was in the womb,” Dave stated in his TIMES interview, thus charting out Daniel’s career path before his birth.

Reportedly, to strengthen Daniel’s mental fortitude for the rigorous workouts, especially press-ups, at home from a very early age, Dave made him recite a verse from the Bible—“Blessed be the Lord, my Rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.” Thus, “spirituality” was one way Dave thought about building discipline in Dubois and keeping him on the straight and narrow path of boxing.

Dubois’ hard work, upbringing, and beliefs finally paid dividends after he beat Anthony Joshua to retain his IBF title. It is interesting to see what is next for the London-based boxer now that he has silenced his critics.