This is my era now -I'm ready to prove I'm the world's best heavyweight

The road up to it is bumpy, a lone digger enjoying little success in its attempts to re-lay the surface.

- MATT VERRI

There are chickens and sheep to the left, an assault course temporarily taken over by geese to the right, and two horses in an open field beyond that. This gravelly track leads not to Noah's Ark but to Daniel's barn, inside which a poster on the wall confirms the primary resident: "Dynamite Daniel Dubois IBF heavyweight world champion." The ring below and the long sandpit running alongside it, used for barefoot shadow-boxing sessions, have provided the foundations for Dubois' world-title defence against Joseph Parker on Saturday night.

Within sight of the Borehamwood base is the Wembley arch and a regular reminder of the finest night of Dubois' career. The 27-year-old delivered a devastating fifth-round stoppage of Anthony Joshua in front of 96,000 fans in September. Questions were raised ahead of the fight as to how Dubois would deal with the pressure and added distractions that come with a bout of that magnitude. Fireworks were launched into the Wembley sky to accompany the lengthy ring walks, as nearly five minutes passed between Michael Buffer announcing his name and Dubois finally stepping between the ropes.

"It was like walking through the park," Dubois tells Standard Sport. "I didn't feel any pressure, nothing. It's where I'm meant to be. They were all there to watch my crowning moment, the prophecy my dad has spoken about since I was a little boy. Nothing daunting for me.

"That will always be in the history books. It was a good rough old fight, me and AJ going at it. No surprises. I just want to improve now, I need to keep getting better." Dubois sent Joshua crashing to the canvas in the first round and then three more times in a stunning display of brutal power before the referee stepped in to wave the fight off. There is a new-found confidence to Dubois in and out of the ring, but he is still not naturally drawn to the limelight and a family holiday to Brazil helped escape the intensity of the attention on him.