Don Charles has worked wonders with Daniel Dubois in recent years, guiding ‘Triple D’ to becoming a two-time world heavyweight champion, and the top trainer has now revealed who he believes to be the greatest boxer of all time.
The journey to the pinnacle of the heavyweight division has been far from straightforward for Dubois, who has had to navigate tactical evolutions, career-defining defeats, and significant changes in his coaching setup. Dubois originally began his professional boxing career with Martin Bowers as his coach, building a fearsome reputation as a devastating puncher in the domestic ranks. However, following a chastening defeat to Olympic gold medalist Joe Joyce in 2020, Dubois opted for a change of scenery, leaving the Peacock Gym and working under Shane McGuigan for his comeback fight the following year.
That partnership yielded victories, but as Dubois stepped up to world-class level, further vulnerabilities were exposed. This was highlighted during a worrying meeting with South Africa’s Kevin Lerena in late 2022, where the young Brit was dropped multiple times before rallying to win. Recognizing the need for a fresh tactical approach ahead of his high-stakes bid for Oleksandr Usyk’s unified heavyweight world titles in 2023, Dubois made the pivotal move to work under the stewardship of Don Charles.
Whilst he ultimately came up short in that controversial and bruising contest against the masterful Ukrainian, Charles played an instrumental role in Dubois’ subsequent resurgence. Rather than letting the defeat derail his career, Dubois bounced back with statement victories over Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic. The latter triumph over the formidable Croatian earned him the IBF heavyweight title, establishing him as a legitimate world champion. He then followed that up by dismantling British rival Anthony Joshua in a first successful defense at Wembley Stadium, delivering a performance that signaled his arrival as a true force at the top of the sport.
The heavyweight landscape is notoriously unforgiving, and Usyk proved to be his undoing once again when they rematched. Yet, true to the resilience instilled by his team, Dubois and Charles wasted no time returning to the championship picture. They successfully defended the heavyweight throne by twice knocking out Fabio Wardley to win and then retain the WBO belt, cementing their status at the summit of the division.
Dubois now looks like an absolute force to be reckoned with in boxing’s blue-ribbon division and is considered by many astute observers to be the best active heavyweight on the planet. His combination of youth, concussive power, and championship experience makes him one of the most compelling figures in modern combat sports. Yet, when the discussion turned away from current contenders and towards fighters of years gone by in an illuminating interview with Shizzio, Don Charles offered a historical perspective that bypassed modern legends in favor of a true pioneer of the squared circle, naming Jack Johnson as the greatest boxer of all time.
Johnson occupies a monumental place in sporting history, having broken racial barriers to become the first ever Black heavyweight world champion. He achieved this historic feat when he famously defeated Canada’s Tommy Burns in 1908, a milestone he reached only after campaigning tirelessly for a title shot for many years while facing entrenched racial prejudice that sought to bar him from competing against white champions.
Nicknamed ‘The Galveston Giant,’ Johnson went on to defend his coveted belt against a formidable array of top-tier contenders, including Philadelphia Jack O’Brien, Stanley Ketchel, and James J. Jeffries, during his ground-breaking reign as champion. His dominance inside the ring, combined with his refusal to conform to the societal restrictions placed upon Black athletes of his era, ensured that his career is widely deemed to be amongst the most meaningful of any athlete in sports history, a sentiment clearly shared by one of modern boxing’s leading trainers.
