On her own, Caroline Dubois eyes boxing stardom beyond family feud and sibling rivalry

LONDON – Caroline Dubois and her brother Daniel are taking sibling rivalries to new levels.

The London boxers achieved a rare feat in 2024 when they became just the second sister-brother duo to hold titles at the same time.

Daniel spectacularly knocked out Anthony Joshua in front of 96,000 fans at Wembley Stadium in his first IBF heavyweight title defense.

Now it's Caroline's turn.

The undefeated Olympian (10-0, 5 KOs) makes the first defense of her WBC lightweight title when she faces Canadian Jessica Camara in Sheffield on Saturday — her 24th birthday.

Whether it's a highlight-reel KO or not won't matter — she's already made a statement by venturing out on her own. Her father, Stanley, had guided her career — and still oversees Daniel — but Caroline went solo more than a year ago.

“It was either that or I probably would have ended up stopping boxing and just be in a really bad mental place,” she told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday.

“I don’t want that for myself. Boxing is such a short career. I don’t really want to box forever. I would love to be able to retire by the time I’m 30,” she said. “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.”

The siblings are not on speaking terms. Caroline was not at Wembley to see her brother's big victory.

“Daniel hasn’t come to any of my last four fights, and yet no one asks him that question. He’s not at this fight — he won’t be at the next fight,” she said.

Undisputed in 2025?

Caroline Dubois was upgraded to WBC lightweight champion a month ago after Katie Taylor vacated the belt.

“I believe I’m the best 135-pounder in the division," Dubois said. “If everything goes smoothly, which I believe it can and will, I think I’ll be undisputed by the end of this year.”

Beatriz Ferreira of Brazil holds the IBF belt and England's Terri Harper is the WBO champion. The WBA belt is vacant.

A southpaw, Dubois wants Harper next and hopes to do it as part of the all-female event scheduled for March 7 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Like Saturday's card, it's a Boxxer and Sky Sports show, following their 2022 all-female event in London that Sky said had a TV audience of more than 2 million in the U.K. and Ireland.

“We’re looking to get, hopefully, Terri Harper for the all-female show,” she said. “We’ll have to see how this fight goes — it’s going to make a big impact on who is willing to jump in next.”

The 27-year-old Daniel Dubois hopes to become the undisputed champion in his division, too. After Oleksandr Usyk retained his three heavyweight belts by beating Tyson Fury last month, Dubois interrupted Usyk’s postfight interview to demand a rematch from their 2023 fight that Usyk won by knockout.

Last year, the Fundora siblings beat the Dubois duo to the milestone of first sister and brother to hold titles at the same time. Gabriela Fundora is the flyweight champion and brother Sebastian is a light middleweight title holder. Both are coached by their father, Freddy.

She fought boys first

As a young girl, Caroline Dubois would watch older brother Daniel in the ring. She also became obsessed with middleweight greats like Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvelous Marvin Hagler.

“I loved it. I really learned boxing and wanted to try it out,” she said. “I asked my dad at 9 years old ‘Can I do it?’ He kept thinking about it and turning me down because the club that he was at was a boys boxing club. Eventually he was like 'OK I’ll take you to the gym’ and it just kicked off from there.

“When I went there, I had to pretend to be a boy — Colin. That happened for about six months until I got a fight.”

Home-schooled until age 11, she switched into secondary school and five years later was boxing for “Team GB” and traveling to different countries for tournaments.

Dubois lost in the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and a year later had her first pro fight.

First title defense

Camara (14-4, 3 KOs) traveled to South Korea last April and beat a previously undefeated fighter, Choi Hyun-mi, via split decision.

Dubois isn’t worried about an upset.

“I’m happy that she’s coming off a good win, it makes (Saturday’s) fight more relevant,” she said. “It’s a good name to have as my first title defense.

“She’s a threat if I’m not ready, but unfortunately (for her) I’m ready.”

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AP boxing: https://apnews.com/boxing