Caroline Dubois is ready to move up a level against Yanina Lescano at York Hall on Friday; Dubois relishes the contest: "In the ring I can be myself. I can be as aggressive, as mean, as nasty as I want. I can express myself"; Watch from 7pm tonight live on Sky Sports
Friday 16 June 2023 12:01, UK
It’s when she fights that Caroline Dubois becomes who she really is.
The Londoner is softly spoken outside the ring. But once she's through the ropes, the aggression comes out.
Dubois, so far, has looked to be a ruthless finisher, on a run of five consecutive stoppage wins even while boxing two-minute rounds.
"It comes from inside. I'm a fiery kid, I've got a fiery personality, I don't show it a lot but it's in me. I can flick that switch and it comes out," Dubois told Sky Sports.
"I would call myself a pretty aggressive person and the time that I'm in the ring is the time that I can express myself the best.
"I feel like I am who I am when I'm in that ring. Outside it feels like I'm putting on the mask and the fake smiles. But when I'm in the ring I can be myself. I can be as aggressive, as mean, as nasty as I want."
She expects that approach to be on full display when she boxes Argentina's Yanina Lescano on Friday night at York Hall, live on Sky Sports.
"It's about handling her in a way that she hasn't been handled before. I want to beat her up. I want to bust her up," Dubois said with a disconcerting smile.
"I want to put on a good performance. I want her to leave the ring saying: 'That girl hits hard, the best girl I've been in the ring with.' I need that to happen."
Yanina is however a significant opponent for Dubois. The Argentine is ranked No 2 with the WBC, No 3 with the IBF and No 6 with both the WBO and WBA. She's only lost twice and the most recent defeat was a 10-round, split-decision reverse to Estelle Mossely, the 2016 Olympic gold medallist.
"It's going to be a massive step up for me, something that I'm expecting to be challenged with. I expect it to go a few rounds. I expect it to be a bit pacey, be a bit intense and I'm excited for it. It's going to be so much fun for me. This is what I train for, this is what I live for. I fight and breathe for. The tougher is it the better I'll be prepared and the better I fight as well," Dubois said.
Yanina, more seasoned than Dubois, has never been stopped.
"I want to go out there and put on an amazing performance. I want to leave the venue, leave the ring with people saying my name and if that means a knockout, if that means a clean, clinical, really exciting eight round competitive fight, then let it be that," Dubois said.
But she added: "I feel like if I want to be calling out the likes of Mikaela Mayer and fight her soon, the only way that is possible is if I keep going through these so called step-ups and making them look easy and then it will get to a point where it's not just me calling for the fight, my coach and my team calling for the fight, it'll be a case of the public demanding it.
"They want to see me step up and challenge great, great competition. The only way that can happen is if I keep marching forward at the pace that I'm going and keep showing I'm above the levels that I'm fighting at so far.
"I see myself one day stepping in the ring with Mikaela Mayer, Alycia Baumgardner, Chantelle Cameron, the best in the business, I have to be getting through girls like this. These girls have to be step-ups for me. Not hurdles."
Dubois is the first to call Katie Taylor "a legend". Though Dubois is determined to win one of the lightweight world titles that the Irish star currently holds, she doesn't expect to feature in Taylor's immediate plans.
"I think the pride of Katie Taylor, she probably will take the rematch [with Cameron]. Chantelle will want to make it at 135lbs," Dubois said.
"If that fight happens again I see Chantelle Cameron winning again and if Chantelle wins, all those belts are Chantelle's and I don't see Chantelle sitting around at 135lbs. If she is, great. But I don't see it happening and those belts, they become available.
"Those belts in the air. A perfect opportunity for maybe me and Mikaela to fight for them. For somebody to go and snatch them."
A lightweight world title is the aim, but that is the first goal of many.
Dubois can eventually see herself moving through different divisions.
"It brings more [to your] name, it brings more legacy. It brings more achievements. I'm young, I'm 22. I'm not going to get smaller, I'm going to get bigger. I don't think I will stop growing fully physically until I'm like 25, 26. By then I reckon I will have gone through a good few weights," Dubois said.
"I think I can go up all the way up to maybe 147lbs, maybe 154lbs, depends. That's where I see my limit, my peak ending up at. That's going to be amazing for me. It'll be great.
"That's what I'm aiming for," she added. "That's what I want."
Six years on from being personally affected by the Grenfell Tower tragedy, one of the many motivations for rising star Caroline Dubois is to ensure Tony Disson's prophecy is fulfilled.
Dubois' late trainer Disson was one of 72 people to die on June 14 in 2017 when a tower block in North Kensington caught fire and burned for 60 hours, partly due to dangerous aluminium cladding on the exterior of the 24-storey building.
At the bottom of Grenfell Tower was Dale Youth Boxing Club where Disson nurtured many prospects, including Dubois, who he insisted from the very start was destined for the top.
"Tony always used to say I would go to the Olympics and I would be special," she said. "And here I am, trying my hardest to make sure his words come true."
Watch Caroline Dubois vs Yanina Lescano from 7pm tonight live on Sky Sports Action.
