Joe McConnell
Caroline Dubois was inspired by Katie Taylor and the first female Olympic boxing champions as a child. But now Dubois is trying to force a meeting with Taylor and intends to continue to challenge the Irish superstar.
If Dubois can beat Maira Moneo in their match on Saturday, live on Vscekwill win the interim WBC lightweight title. While Taylor is currently boxing in the above division, he still holds the full WBC world title at 135 pounds.
“When I win this fight on Saturday I’ll be his mandatory opponent. So he has two options. Either he quits or he fights me and that’s as simple as that,” Dubois said. Vscek.
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Dubois looks ahead to his bout against Moneo and predicts he will win the fight by knockout
“I have to keep calling her by her name so people know I’m thinking about it and I’m serious.
“If you don’t speak up, people forget about you. Katie knows what happens.”
Moneo, however, promises to be a tough opponent on Saturday. The Uruguayan’s only professional defeat came via a headbutt suspension.
But Dubois warned that if Moneo tried any foul tactics: “I would do it to him right away.”
“I’ll hit her and knock her out.”
Dubois has to give it his all. But he says, “I’m focused on getting in the ring and kicking ass. That’s my goal. If I care about how I look when I get in the ring and how I perform, there’s no pressure.
“If I win, people will talk about me. If I lose, people will forget about me. So the focus is on winning and how I win.”
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Dubois shows his eagerness for a showdown with Katie Taylor after her fight against Moneo
Although Dubois is a young professional, she has grown accustomed to high expectations as a stellar amateur. She was undefeated as a junior and junior, winning world and European championships on her rise through those categories.
Her first defeat came only as a senior boxer, but she suffered her most painful defeat when she was eliminated from the last Olympics before reaching the medal stage.
But now she is convinced that this experience will be useful to her in the future.
“People started to realize that this girl is undefeated every time I showed up to a tournament,” Dubois said. “I started to worry about not losing versus winning and I think that’s the problem.
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Dubois outclassed Miranda Reyes but was unable to find a stopping point despite landing numerous damaging combinations
“There is a difference. I just think that, learning from that experience, I should worry more about winning than losing.
“I remember when I was 11 years old watching Katie, Claressa [Shields] and Nicola [Adams]. I wanted to go to the Olympics after seeing them in London. I wanted to win gold after seeing them in London.
“They lit that dream, ever since I was a kid, until I was 20, that was all I wanted… Letting it go, it hurt a lot and it taught me a lot.”
Now she makes sure to be positive and aggressive when facing her opponents. Here’s what Moneo can expect when they fight on Saturday.
With opponents like these, Dubois said: “You have to fight because everyone wants to win.
“All they have is the commitment and the desire, and they bring it out every time, and you have to live up to it.
“You have to want it more than them, you have to train harder than them, and be more skilled than them. And that’s what I do every time.”
Watch Maira Moneo vs Caroline Dubois live on Vscek Action from 7.30pm on Saturday 3 August.
