DANIEL DUBOIS the silent assassin is causing sickening sounds in deepest darkest Canning Town.
With COVID-19 restrictions still in place, the Peacock Gym remains closed off to its usual swath of noisy members who can usually drown out the thuds of even the hardest hitters.
But with just a handful of strictly tested pros operating in the far end of the famous sweatbox – during a brutal heatwave – SunSport was granted unprecedented access to film the usually top-secret sessions ahead of Dynamite Dan’s August 29 bout with Erik Pfeifer.
Three men are paid to take turns this Wednesday morning trying to take off the 22-year-old’s head.
But more importantly they must be able to withstand his power.
Lead sparring partner – and somehow close friend – Dorin Krasmaru is also a part-time security guard at a local East London store.
Chasing down villains and daring to confront possibly armed thieves must be the easiest part of his day and Dubois respects his rival’s commitment.
He told SunSport: “Heavyweight sparring is hard.
“You can’t always rely on people to turn up on agreed days and do the number of rounds you want in a professional way.
“Dorin understands he has to be on his A game because I am always going in for the kill and I take any opportunity.
“Dorin has been around since day one of me turning pro, I have learned a lot from him and I hope he has learned some from me.”
Martin Bowers, Dubois’ trainer, bounces around on his haunches guiding his charge through each phase, praising his successes and curing his few mistakes.
In the politest possible terms, Bowers evicts us for four rounds when he and DDD will focus on a few very specific things for possible-banana-skin Pfeifer.
BT Sport must make it abundantly clear to their viewers in a couple of weeks the Russian-born German is much more than a 7-0 prospect.
The 33-year-old is a decorated amateur with two wins over reigning Olympic champion Tony Yoka.
Members of Frank Warren’s promotional team were even shocked to learn this was the latest target in the Dubois crosshairs.
When Dubois first emerged as a painfully shy teenager, more comfortably in front of an 18st rival than a camera, he was lazily labelled a banger skittling fall guys.
But the wins against Razvan Cojanu and Nathan Gorman unveiled a seriously gifted talent with a textbook full of foundation skills and a Larry Holmes-like jab that could take him around the world without even needing his savage right hand.
For a few of the most recent 14 wins, Bowers has flown in sparring partners from New York, hungry unknown faces with no respect for Dubois’ British title or his potential and they have been sent packing after helping to make him even more devastating.
Hard men like Tyson Fury, Martin Bakole, Mariusz Wach, David Adeleye and Jay McFarlane have done behind-closed-doors rounds with the Greenwich kid and failed to break him.
There is a growing trend among some new-age fighters and trainers that hard sparring rounds might no longer be the essential base for a fighter to build on.
But Dubois and Bowers, the fitness fanatic theatre-lover, remain loyal to the old school idea that the more you sweat in the training, the less you bleed in battle.
The last time Pfeifer faced a young London lad with plenty of promise, it was the 2011 World championships in Baku and he had his nose shattered inside a round by a gangly kid called Anthony Joshua.
If these few insightful rounds in the bowels of the Dubois camp are anything to go by, Pfeifer’s doctors might have another bloody job on their hands.
