Meet the OTHER Dubois! How Caroline is stepping out of her brother Daniel’s shadow as she prepares to become the youngest undisputed champion in female boxing

Caroline Dubois may only be 24 years old, but already her story has so many strands it can be hard to know where to start.

The lazy option would be to tell the British boxer’s tale in relation to that of her older brother Daniel, a fellow world champion and early source of inspiration who was set to defend his IBF heavyweight title in Saudi Arabia this weekend until illness intervened.

It would be equally easy to dwell on the formative influence of her father, Dave, a former Camden Market street trader who, having reared Daniel to become a fighter from a young age, caved in to Caroline’s repeated requests to follow the same path when she was aged nine.

We could even begin her story in 1808, when one of her ancestors, an enslaved bare-knuckle fighter named Sylvia Dubois, unexpectedly won freedom after knocking out her mistress.

But to define Dubois in terms of anyone other than herself would be a disservice to a woman who, from the moment she first began pestering her father to train her, has increasingly forged her own path. 

Dubois is undefeated in 11 outings since turning professional two years ago, the only blemish on an otherwise perfect record coming last month, when a clash of heads with Canada’s Jessica Camara resulted in a technical draw after two rounds.

The bout in Sheffield marked Dubois’ first defence of the WBC belt she was awarded in December, following the decision of the Irish lightweight Katie Taylor to vacate the belt. 

Some would have it that Dubois, who outpointed Maira Moneo of Uruguay last August to win the interim championship, was gifted world champion status by Taylor’s decision to step down.

The brutal treatment she dished out to Camara suggested otherwise – as the judges’ scorecards would have, had the fight lasted two more rounds. So too does a near-flawless record at amateur and professional level and the IBO lightweight belt she claimed against Mexico’s Magali Rodriguez in September 2023. 

And with her estranged sibling Daniel temporarily sidelined, it is now the turn of the younger Dubois to take centre stage, as she will when she defends her crown against South Korea’s Bo Mi Re Shin at the Royal Albert Hall next month.

Famously, Dubois started her career at Repton Amateur Boxing Club in Bethnal Green, east London, a storied hotbed of British boxing talent that has produced world champions like John H Stracey and Maurice Hope. 

Founded in 1884 by Repton school in Derbyshire as a mission for disadvantaged boys, the club did not start admitting women until 2012 – which meant Dubois had to prune a few letters from her first name before pulling on the gloves. 

‘For me to start boxing I had to pretend to be a boy,’ said Dubois, who shortened her name to Colin and kept her gender a closely guarded secret for a year before she was rumbled. 

‘Dad told me to call myself Carl when we got to the gym but, with nerves jangling inside me, I said “Colin” instead when they asked for my name. It didn’t matter because I managed to keep my secret at the Repton for a year. 

‘We kept quiet and I enjoyed beating all the boys in sparring. Another trainer said that the boy called Colin was destined to be a world champion one day. 

‘But the situation became complicated when the head coach arranged a fight for me that involved a medical before we stepped into the ring. My dad had to tell them the truth.’ 

It sounds almost like something out of a Shakespeare play, this tale of a girl who disguised herself as a boy in pursuit of her one true love. And perhaps that is apt, for the rise of Dubois – who joined Dale Youth Boxing Club, in the basement of the old Grenfell Tower, after she was rumbled at Repton – has been nothing if not dramatic.

By the time she arrived in Buenos Aires for the 2018 Youth Olympics, Dubois was already a veteran of the national, European and world stage – and had the medals to prove it. 

A national schools’ crown, won at the age of 14. The national youth championships title at 60kg, which she claimed in 2018 – emulating the achievement of her brother three years earlier in the over-91kg category – and would successfully defend a year later. 

Three European junior titles in three years between 2016 and 2018. GB Three Nations victories at 57kg and 60kg. A lightweight world junior champion title, clinched against Russia’s Nune Asatryan in Budapest two months earlier.

It was a formidable body of achievement and yet, for Dubois, the Olympics was all that mattered. She had watched, transfixed, as fellow Brit Nicola Adams defeated Ren Cancan in the flyweight final to become the first female boxer in history to win an Olympic gold medal. She had seen Adams defend her title four years later in Rio. Now she wanted a slice of the action. 

‘The goal is to win gold,’ said Dubois, who arrived in the Argentine capital undefeated in 32 fights. ‘That’s been the dream for a very long time.’

It was a dream she would fulfil, outscoring Thailand’s Porntip Buapa in the final, but neither that win nor the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year gong that followed would be enough to sate her competitive appetite. 

‘I’ve won the youth Europeans, worlds and now the Olympics,’ said Dubois, the sweat still glistening as she reflected on her victory at the Oceania Pavilion in Buenos Arires’ Olympic park. 

‘I’ve won it all, so soon it’ll be time for me to step up to the seniors and go for the Olympic Games.’

Her path to the Tokyo Games, like the event itself, was interrupted by Covid. A qualification over Ala Staradub of Belarus at London’s Copper Box Arena in March 2020, her first fight as a senior, was followed more than a year later by an impressive victory over the vastly more experienced Mira Potkonen, a lightweight bronze medallist in Rio. 

That Dubois was able to resume her senior career to such telling effect was testimony to her singular gifts. Like the legendary middleweight Marvin Hagler, she is a right-handed fighter who adopts a southpaw stance, combining flawless technique with a high boxing IQ. 

Those qualities subsequently carried her to a win over Italy’s Rebecca Nicoli, securing her place on the plane to Japan, but she would go on to suffer only the second defeat of her amateur career in the final against Ireland Kellie Harrington.

A more heartbreaking setback came in Tokyo the following summer, where she lost her quarter-final bout with Sudaporn Seesondee of Thailand by a split decision, narrowly missing out on a medal as a result. 

There were tearful moments in the aftermath of that defeat, but despair quickly gave way to optimism for the future, and Dubois’ unrelentingly upward trajectory since offers ample optimism that her confidence was justified.

The only blight on the horizon is a seemingly acrimonious family split. She has moved out of the family home and has said she is no longer in touch with either her father or Daniel.

‘It was either that or I probably would have ended up stopping boxing and just be in a really bad mental place,’ said Dubois, the middle of 11 children. ‘I don’t want that for myself.

‘I don’t want to be someone who lives with regret. I don’t want to be angry at somebody or whatever. You just have to get on with your life, and that’s what I decided to do.’

While Dave has suggested that his daughter has changed and he no longer agrees with female boxing, Dubois has countered that the problems began when her father, once her biggest cheerleaders, began to be less supportive of her career. 

Reaching that realisation was, she said, an epiphany that made her re-evaluate her motives and goals.

‘The only reason I started boxing was because I took my life into my own hands and I decided that I wanted more for myself,’ Dubois told dedicated boxing channel Seconds Out.  

‘I travelled everywhere [to box] and I think that helped open up my mind, helped change me, change my perspective.

“I saw how other people treated their children and my mind opened up. I saw what was acceptable and what I wanted to accept. My boundaries got bigger.

“And I remember coming to a conclusion for myself, “Who am I boxing for?” 

‘One thing that my dad was honest about is that he stopped supporting me when I was 16 years old. With boxing, he just stopped looking after me and supporting me and stopped pushing me because he didn’t like the way that I was changing.

‘As he says, I was becoming more independent and I wanted more for myself. And I just was like, what am I doing this for? It was like a penny drop moment.

“I was like, “I’m doing it for myself, I’m doing this s**t for myself.” I’m not dying, making weight, sweating out, not eating for days – and as a woman I lose my period – I’m not doing this for some other guy who couldn’t care less. I’m doing it for myself, I’m doing it for my future.’

It remains to be seen what that future holds. Yet, for all the myriad plot lines that surround Dubois, perhaps the most exciting part of her story is that, so far as she is concerned, it has yet to begin in earnest. 

‘I want to make a statement and let the world know that Caroline Dubois is a world champion and she will reign for a very long time,’ she said before facing Camara.

‘There’s going to be bigger nights, bigger fights. Definitely harder nights and hard fights, and undisputed is the goal for me now.

‘I want to be undisputed in three weight divisions and then retire, call it a day – all before 30.’

Whether she succeeds or fails, it should be some ride.