Dubois blasts 'joker' Turhan and plans Han fight before end of 2026

Caroline Dubois admits she is "frustrated" at having to fight for the defence of her title rather than a unification as she blasts IBF champion Elif Nur Turhan for her "ridiculous" demands and eyes a bout with Stephanie Han by the end of 2026.

Dubois is chasing the next piece of the undisputed puzzle, having unified the WBC, WBO and Ring Magazine lightweight belts after dropping Terri Harper en route to beating her rival world champion by unanimous decision in April.

She returns as the UK's unified WBC and WBO lightweight world champion in a 10-round unified championship defence against American Amelia Moore on the undercard of MVPW-06 at the bp pulse LIVE arena in Birmingham on August 29, where every fight on the main card will see a UK vs USA contest.

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But 25-year-old Dubois and her quest to unify the belts have taken a knock and left her disappointed with prospective fighter Turhan, who goes by the moniker 'Golden Turkish Warrior'.

"I don't even know what happened," revealed Dubois. "From what I hear and from what my promotions are telling me and my team is telling me, they made her an offer and she asked for such an astronomical, ridiculous amount. It was absurd. It was crazy.

"The amount that she asked for and it was, it wasn't even a laugh out of the room. It was just something, ignore that because it was just so ridiculous.

"She isn't about it. She thinks that she is something that she isn't and I'm really disappointed in her and how she's moving because it's all good to talk online. She asked for the most ridiculous number that you would, even if I told you, you would think I'm lying.

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"So she just isn't about it. She's a joker and what you do with jokers, you just leave them alone.

"That's retirement money. That's, that's never-fight-again type of money."

Dubois believes the fight with Turhan will happen but warned the 31-year-old from Istanbul against profligacy when defending her title.

"It's just about how, how it happens and when it happens," she said. "I know that I'm going to fight Stephanie Han after this and that's the plan for me. So at least her hand will just have to wait. You know, she's, she's a joker.

"She's going to have to wait. And I hope honestly that she can hold on to the title because our last few performances, they've been incredibly shaky and I can see someone taking it from her.

"She has a defence that isn't completely safe, double checked and packed over. I can see her losing that belt. And with that fight may never happen. So if I was I'll get back in the gym and work on the fundamentals, the jab predominantly being the main thing.

"She needs to go back to those fundamentals and be, be really studying boxing because there's a good chance you can get that belt snatched by a complete nobody."

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Dubois eyes Han fight by end of year

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Dubois has now turned her attentions to Han, who is a rising American boxer, a police officer, and a former pageant queen.

In May, she retained her WBA lightweight title and maintained her undefeated record as she secured a controversial win by decision in her much-anticipated rematch with Holly Holm.

Han, though came out on top, with two judges scoring the bout 96-94 in her favour despite one judge calling the match a draw at 95-95.

"With Stephanie, I guess she recently just fought and it was great because I was able to be there. I shook her hand afterwards and we pretty much agreed to the fight and I hold her to that," said Dubois.

"I believe her. I believe that she will not be trying to avoid that fight and we shook and hopefully we can make that fight happen next because she's, she's about it and I like that energy about her. So I'm going to hold her to a promise and after this defence, I will definitely be going after Stephanie Han.

"It has to happen before the end of this year. I'm owed three fights with the MVP in a year and I'm going to hold them too.

"I'm going to make sure that they double down on what they've promised me. And I hope we can make that fight at the end of the year."

Watch MVPW-06 in Birmingham, headlined by Mikaela Mayer v Chantelle Cameron and with Caroline Dubois also in action, live on August 29 on Sky Sports. Get Sky Sports or stream boxing with no contract.