Caroline Dubois is planning a joint celebration to celebrate her 24th birthday and her first defense of the WBC lightweight title.
She will compete as a world champion for the first time on the Callum Simpson-Steed Woodall undercard at Park Community Arena in Sheffield, England.
Saturday is also her 24th birthday, which became even more important when the WBC promoted her to official titleholder.
Dubois was briefly frustrated by Katie Taylor’s retention of the undisputed lightweight title, but she could face Canada’s Jessica Kamara for the first time as champion. Dubois is confident that Muhammad Ali and George Foreman are also Capricorns, and a win could also set the stage for the most successful year of her promising career.
“It was a great little birthday present,” she told BoxingScene. “I can kill two birds with one stone. Have a nice little celebration – and then I can go somewhere nice to eat and hopefully somewhere with my family and friends.
“As far as fighting on my birthday, it’s not really a problem. Just locking in a little bit because there’s no way [I can accept it if I] Poor performance. I need to perform well for the fans and now for myself.
“It’s been pretty low-key actually. Obviously Shane [McGuigan, my trainer] Everyone in the gym where I train knows it’s my birthday. But no one really knows this. Maybe I’ll make a mountain out of a molehill.
“I know a lot of January warriors. George Foreman, Muhammad Ali, they’re all January babies. We’re winter babies, so I guess we have to be tougher to get through the year. I guess, January’s There’s a thing about people – we just have a tendency to walk around with confidence. We’re strong people who always know how to make things happen.
“We train hard, we train hard, we’re good fighters. We’re very good fighters. I’m lucky – I’m born in the same month as a lot of fighters that I look up to. It’s a nice little detail.”
Dubois was asked if she considered herself a champion once the WBC named her champion at their recent convention, or if she would only do so if she beat the 36-year-old Kamara in the ring, She replied: “I fought very good opponents. Maira Moneo was the interim world champion and we were trying to fight for the WBC title with this fight, but Katie Taylor It was annoying because I knew she had no intention of coming down. All she and her team were doing was a little bit of a mess, because that fight could have been for four world titles. , so going into this I see [the Moneo bout] As a world title fight, you know what I’m saying?
“When I won, I was like, ‘OK, I beat the interim world champion; I knew Katie was leaving. I didn’t really look at it as anything else. I thought it was a world championship. The title fight, I just prepared right.
“Everybody wants to win a world title in the ring, but I’m going to defend the belt and I’m going to unify the division. The undisputed stuff is happening, so there’s no rush – we’re going to get through those big nights. We’re going to go through it Those tough, hard fights, you know you’ve been through a fight and when you win and get the belt you feel like, ‘Yeah, I got this – I deserved it’ so I’m not in a rush. I’m going to get it. I’m excited.
“It’ll be fine.” It would be great to defend my first world title. I don’t want to be arrogant or disrespectful, but I never really paid attention to the world championship. I’ve been focused on getting into the big fights. Get into the kind of fight that gets your blood pumping and your energy pumping; you’re nervous and excited, you feel the attention and you feel the pressure. Those fights – those nights are really going to mean something. These make me feel like, ‘Wow, I did something. ‘Winning the belt is just an added bonus. This is recognition; this is honour. Fighting is always what keeps me going. “
Declan Warrington has been writing about boxing for national newspapers in the UK and Ireland since 2010. He is also a long-time contributor to Boxing News, Boxing News Presents and Talksport, and has served as a boxing correspondent for the Press Association, BoxNation and BoxNation commentator. He is a regular contributor to publications including Boxing Monthly, The Athletic and Boxing Magazine. In 2023, he conducted interviews and wrote the script for the audio documentary “Froch-Groves: The Definitive Story”; he is also a member of the BWAA.
