Oleksandr Usyk wanted to fight Tyson Fury, but negotiations fell out. So the Ukrainian heavyweight ace will instead step into the ring with Brit Daniel Dubois.
A purse bid to do the fight got made, and the promoter who won the process, Alex Krassyuk, who reps Usyk, will place the fight in Poland. The target date is August 12, for the record.
“We won the bid, now working to stage the fight in Wroclaw, Poland on August 12th,” Krassyuk said.
Usyk, age 36, holds the WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight belts. The WBA has deemed Dubois (19-1, 18 KOs) “mandatory challenger” for their strap.
Daniel Dubois Might Be In Over His Head
Usyk holds a 20-0 (13 Kos) record, and will be a favorite in the eyes of plenty, seeing as how Dubois’s opposition hasn’t been in the Oleksandr Usyk skills range too much.
Dubois has momentum when he got stopped by Joe Joyce in Nov 2020. He’s beaten sub stalwarts Bogdan Dinu, Joe Cusumano, Trevor Bryan and Kevin Lerena, in his last battle. That TKO3 came on Dec. 3, 2022, and Dubois got rocked plenty in that tussle.
Judging by the Instagram post (see below), Dubois is amped to get this step up opportunity:
Maybe Dubois is hoping the southpaw Usyk is an “old” 36. He’s looked just fine in his last two fights, handling Anthony Joshua with relative ease in both their 9-25-21 and 8-2-22 contests. Nine months ago, Joshua hoped a new trainer would help him adjust to battle the skilled pugilist. The judges said not so much, though Glen Feldman turned in a horrid card and saw AJ the winner.
In their first contest, Usyk bested the chiseled icon AJ in England:
Dubois has your on his side, he is just 25. Also, his power could make it interesting. But most are assuming this is a “stay busy” for Oleksandr Usyk, I believe.