To perceive why Dubois felt she wanted to discover her voice, you should take a look at how she began. Long earlier than she was a world champion, she was a nine-year-old woman pretending to be a boy named Colin.
In a world that didn’t all the time see a future for feminine boxers, she tucked her hair right into a headguard and lived a lie for months.
“I think it was obviously a reflection of the time, but the thing I find most sad is that they actually thought I was a boy. I mean, that’s devastating,” she quips. “But at the time, I was full Mulan… enjoying it, I didn’t care.”
That “Mulan” spirit served her nicely. She spent years strolling into gyms recognized solely as “Daniel’s little sister,” however quickly carved out her personal status, successful Youth Olympic gold, European gold and qualifying for the Olympics at simply 19.
When each siblings have been climbing the skilled ranks, it was hailed as a family success story. But by the point Caroline beat Maira Moneo in 2024 to grow to be WBC ‘interim’ champion, the relationship had already soured.
Daniel was not there to see his youthful sister’s crowning second. Caroline, in the meantime, was not at Wembley Stadium when Daniel delivered his career-defining knockout of Anthony Joshua, nor was she there when he misplaced his belt to Oleksandr Usyk.
For Caroline, the space has been a essential technique of self-preservation.
“I haven’t been able to watch him fight – in person or on TV – since I moved out,” she says.
“I don’t watch him as a friend, I watch him as a sister. It is hard if you’re not there to speak to him and check in on him, go up to him afterwards and either console him or give him a slap on the back. It’s been very hard.”
BBC Sport has contacted representatives of Daniel Dubois, who didn’t need to communicate on behalf of Dave Dubois. He has beforehand stated family “doesn’t always go as smoothly as you would like it to”.
