If you believe what the bookmakers think, Daniel Dubois is in for an easy night against Kyotaro Fujimoto at the Copper Box Arena in East London on Saturday night. Martin Bowers, Dubois’s trainer, is having none of that, however, and his worries have not been eased by his inability to find out much information about the Japanese heavyweight.

“All the people Dan has boxed this year, I’ve had contacts to phone up and ask how they are doing,” Bowers said. “But I don’t know anyone in Japan. I’ve got no friends out there who I can call to ask who is sparring and how is he doing.

“Even with [Ebenezer] Tetteh (in Ghana), I knew he had been in the gym and was in shape and I knew that if he had got through two or three rounds he could have settled into the fight and been a problem for us.”

This is Dubois’s fifth fight this year, a busy 12 months for a world-ranked heavyweight, but Bowers feels that his man has benefitted from staying in the gym so much.

“He has grown up a lot in the last year and he is match fit because he has been fighting so regularly,” Bowers said. “It helps all fighters to know you have a date and know who your opponent is, because, as you see on the undercard, some boys will be getting ready for one person and then fighting someone else.

“The next level of fighters, if we get there, he will not be fighting so regularly. Frank [Warren} has done a good job getting him so many fights this year because it was needed. Hopefully we haven’t overdone it this year.”

Bowers does not go along with the idea that this should be a straightforward task.

“I think they are wrong,” he said. “He looks a very strong man and everything the Japanese do, they do diligently.

“Fujimoto has got good balance, we have a bit of range on him but he has a toughness about him. With heavyweights, one split second can change everything. This is no easy job. This guy hasn’t flown here from Japan for a junket.

“Watching him the other night, I liked the way he moved around, he knows what he is doing. He’s done other contact sports too, so he can fight. He is comfortable in this position, he doesn’t look caught in the headlights. He’s representing Japan and that will mean a lot to him.

“We are prepared, sparring has gone well and we are as prepared as we can be. We have had a fantastic year, but it is not over yet.”

Looking ahead, Bowers knows that things will get tougher for Dubois and, despite Warren’s bold predictions of boxing for a world title by this time next year, Bowers knows that Is a long way off.

“Until now we have been able to pick the opposition, but that will change if we move on,” Bowers said. “We are not going to be able to pick our way through this, at the next level we are going to have to face some fights that we don’t really want.”

First, though, Fujimoto awaits.

“We have got a skeleton of a game plan,” he said. “But when the bell goes that goes out of the window and we have to make it up on the hoof, because none of us know what he brings.”