Declan Taylor: Inside Don Charles' custom gym for Daniel Dubois

Don Charles built a boxing gym inside a converted barn north of London with one fighter in mind: Daniel Dubois. The facility, completed ahead of Dubois' knockout victory over Anthony Joshua at Wembley last September, features a giant replica of the 1932 photograph Lunch atop a Skyscraper stretching across one wall. "It's just my favourite picture," Charles told The Ring. "These guys are all up there, totally comfortable with what they're doing but they are all in real danger, one slip and it could all be over for any of them. And that's just like heavyweight boxing."

On the opposite wall hangs a banner reading "Dynamite Daniel Dubois. World Heavyweight Champion." Charles installed it the night before Dubois' first training session at the barn. "I almost broke my neck putting that picture up," he said. "I welcomed him and said this is your gym, this is for your camp. I was very tearful." The gym includes theater spotlights bought from Facebook Marketplace, rigged above the ring to simulate fight-night conditions. Charles convinced a local farmer to let him convert the barn after training Dubois in Spain for years.

Dubois returns after Sims split

After losing the IBF title to Oleksandr Usyk last July, Dubois left Charles for Tony Sims' Essex operation. The split lasted five months. "When Daniel left it left a big void because every time I walked in here it didn't feel the same," Charles said, per The Ring. "The guy I built it for was no longer here. So when he left it really hurt me but the way the universe had it is they came back and now it's business as usual." Charles never removed Dubois' banner during the separation.

Dubois challenges WBO heavyweight champion Fabio Wardley on Saturday in Manchester. Queensberry Promotions has billed the card Don't Blink. Charles' gym sits close enough to Wembley that the stadium arch is visible from outside the barn. He now trains his son George Fox and a stable of heavyweights under the spotlights, with the skyscraper workers watching from the wall. Charles wants to one day recreate the photograph with retired heavyweights from this era. "Can you imagine them all lined up like that, shooting the breeze," he said.

Source: ringmagazine.com