Daniel Dubois is just 19 but is already being heralded as a future World Heavyweight Champion
The rumours won't go away.
Every time Daniel Dubois has been asked about his sparring sessions with heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua, the 19-year-old physical freak has tip-toed around the subject.
Repeatedly he is asked to confirm if he actually knocked Joshua down when they traded blows in training and repeatedly Dubois has offered non-committal answers.
Daniel Dubois is just 19 but is tipped to be a World Heavyweight Champion. Picture / Getty Images
He has never denied knocking Joshua down and the dual heavyweight champion, who recently became king of the world with a thrilling win over Wladimir Klitschko, has never denied it either.
Since those stories about him and Joshua began to swell, Dubois has gone professional.
He's had three fights in the last six weeks and he's won them all in the first round via knockouts.
Those three fights lasted a total two minutes and three seconds.
Three fights. Three first round knockouts.
And, so, the Dubois name continued to swell the boxing community.
His most recent win on Sunday (AEDT) over David Howe - on the undercard of the Gervonta Davis-Liam Walsh IBF World Super Featherweight title fight in London - has pushed him towards star status after just over a month in professional boxing.
He took just 40 seconds to demolish Howe - a crunching right on the ropes sending his opponent to the canvas.
After three fights it would normally seem crazy to declare Dubois a future champion - but that's exactly what boxing commentators have already freely stated.
Controversial English former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury got to see Dubois first hand earlier this year when they trained together.
His fight promoter Frank Warren has tried to avoid putting any pressure on his client, but the outside noise is impossible to ignore.
"The obvious thing is how ridiculously powerful he is for someone so young," Warren told worldboxingnews.net recently.
"He's 107kg of pure granite. There's a real thud reverberating around the gym every time he smashes the heavy bag and he really scorches my hands when I take him on the pads.
"Remember, the kid's just 19. Lord, knows how destructive he'll be at 24, 25."
Between the fight commentators all but declaring him the future heavyweight king and his gloves scaring most people within a 5km radius, Dubois hasn't had to say anything to build his reputation.
Which is a good thing because you're unlikely to get a controversial comment out of him. Ever.
Before his professional debut, Dubois revealed he meditates every time before he walks out to the ring.
Warren also said Dubois thanks his opponent every time he steps into the ring - even if they aren't conscious by the end of the fight to hear his gracious offerings.
Dubois was originally hyped as a gold-medal contender in boxing at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, but at the behest of his advisers, Dubois went professional this year, simply because he is good enough to do exactly that.
"I would have loved to have represented Great Britain in Tokyo and if the Games had been next year, I wouldn't have had a problem," Dubois told The Sun.
