Daniel Dubois and Frank Warren form an unusual duo. The suave promoter, a 72-year-old with a tough yet talkative demeanor, contrasts sharply with the 27-year-old, 6ft 5in heavyweight, Dubois, who is noticeably more reserved. As Dubois gears up for his showdown with Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night, it's evident how frequently he seeks reassurance from Warren. When queried about managing the intense media scrutiny accompanying a bout against the more renowned Joshua, Dubois glances at his promoter for guidance: “What do you think?” Warren responds without hesitation: “It’s business.” Dubois concurs, “It’s just business. That’s right.” Warren adds, “Get on with it, it’s part of the business we’re in. It sells the tickets.” “Exactly,” Dubois agrees.

Dubois, who has always been shy and awkward, has shown promising signs of composure this week as he prepares for the biggest fight of his career. He appears relatively at ease and notes: “I know it is going to be a massive fight and on the night I’ll feed off that energy in the arena. For now I’m just trying to stay calm and collected.” When reminded that he has never fought in front of 96,000 people, Warren interjects, “I don’t agree with that at all. What’s going to be different to Usyk?” Last August, Dubois faced Oleksandr Usyk, the world heavyweight champion, in Wroclaw, Poland. Despite Usyk’s superior skills, Dubois landed a heavy shot that caused Usyk to drop in round five. The blow was ruled a low blow, allowing Usyk nearly four minutes to recover before ultimately stopping Dubois in the ninth.

Warren asserts that fighting Usyk in a neighboring country of Ukraine has prepared Dubois for a bout against Joshua: “He went in the other guy’s back yard, with 50,000-odd Ukrainians, and that was a much more hostile environment [than Wembley].” Dubois agrees: “That’s right.” Despite accusations of quitting against Usyk and suffering his first career loss to Joe Joyce in 2020, Dubois finds solace in his recent victories over Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic. “The last two fights was my redemption,” he says, before Warren adds, “I don’t think redemption was needed. There was controversy after Usyk but [Dubois] was still a young man. You look at his résumé and for a guy his age he’s fought better quality fighters in his last three fights than AJ has, without a doubt. He’s been an underdog in every one of those fights and come through two of them. I also think he should have won the Usyk fight as the referee should not have given that as a low blow.”

Dubois grins when reminded of Eddie Hearn’s suggestion that his “knees will knock” when he walks to the ring to fight Joshua. “No, no, no,” Dubois asserts. “We’ll feed off that energy of the crowd and make [Hearn’s] knees knock when he sees what I’m doing to his boy. It’s all part of the game. I love this back and forth talk but I’m ready to fight now.” Despite their polite demeanor, a recent television face-off saw some tension emerge. When Dubois declared he was ready to fight there and then, Joshua threatened to break a chair over his head. “Having said that, the chairs were bolted down,” Warren recalls wryly, making his fighter laugh.

Dubois becomes more serious when asked if there is “bad blood” between him and Joshua. “No, not really, but I’m there to take his respect.” He dismisses an old story about hurting Joshua in sparring years ago: “I take nothing at all from that. Sparring is sparring. I’m not here to spar, I’m here to win a fight and knock him out. I’m the man of the future, I’m a different animal now.” Warren chips in with a reminder that Dubois “knows he can hurt him.” After his grueling victory over Wladimir Klitschko in 2017, Joshua seemed reluctant to engage in such intense battles. However, since appointing Ben Davison as his trainer, Joshua has become more aggressive. Dubois plans to “take him back to that dark place and make him uncomfortable, make him break down in the ring.”

When asked how much Joshua, now 34, has declined since his apparent peak in 2017, Dubois turns to Warren: “Frank, what do you think? Has he gone down?” “He’s not a youngster, is he? You’ve seen him in his good times and his bad times. You’ve got to take him back to his bad times.” Dubois nods. “He’s ripe for the taking now.” When asked what victory over Joshua would mean to him, Warren answers, “It’s planting a flag.” Dubois echoes, “Planting a flag. You know, moving forward as a world champion, definitely.” Dubois smiles again, speaking more confidently: “I’m just a hungry young lion right now. I’m really dangerous. Be careful. I’m warning you, everyone, just be careful.”