Usyk vs Dubois Live Stream Info

It’s not the fight we wanted. That is typically the case with boxing. Fans killing time – stuck watching the Usyk vs Dubois live stream, a pedestrian-on-paper fight no one asked for. Oleksandr Usyk should be defending his IBF, WBA and WBC crowns against WBC champ Tyson Fury in a historic heavyweight unification showdown.

But, boxing being boxing, the fight everyone wanted didn’t materialize.

Fury is off fighting some guy who isn’t even a boxer.

And so we’re left with an underwhelming replacement – Usyk defending against UK’s Daniel Dubois at Stadion Wroclaw in Wroclaw, Poland (Usyk vs Dubois Live Stream is 2 p.m. Eastern start, 5 p.m. main event, Saturday, ESPN+).

Usyk vs Dubois live stream information in story, photo from Usyk-Dubois weigh-in. Photo by Piotr Duszczyk

Can Dubois, 19-1 (18 knockouts), pull the mammoth upset? Well, yeah. He could.

As one James “Buster” Douglas proved 33 years ago, no one is invincible. Not even a 37-0 Mike Tyson.

But the reality is that Dubois is in way over his head here. He’s never fought anyone near Usyk’s grade. And in his biggest test, he was knocked out by the limited Joe Joyce.

He’s not an 8-1 underdog in the Usyk vs Dubois live stream main event for no reason.

What’s unfortunate about these “stay busy” fights is that great boxers only have so many fights and training camps in them. It often seems like a waste of resources to see a future Hall of Famer go to the well at critical junctures in their careers versus opponents they are almost certain to beat.

Usyk v Dubois Live Stream Is Saturday, Watch On ESPN Platform

Southpaw Usyk is 36 years old, a whopping 335-15 as an amateur and an Olympic gold medalist for Ukraine. He’s been a pro for a decade, sports a perfect 20-0 (13 KO’s) log and is a two-division world champion.

At most, he’s got five or six fights left at this highest of levels. That’s maybe another three years. Tops.

Is Dubois really the guy we want him fighting on this Usyk vs Dubois live stream?

They booked it, it's not what anyone asked for, but that's boxing, that's life, right? We will hope to see good drama and action on the Usyk vs Dubois stream

Not really. But ho-hum matchups featuring a great heavyweight champion against a limited opponent is nothing new. Especially in the heavyweight division.

Muhammad Ali had two reigns worth of opponents who were good, solid fighters – but really had no chance against him.

George Chuvalo, Brian London and Karl Mildenberger in the first reign, and Chuck Wepner, Joe Bugner and Jean Pierre Coopman in the second. Wepner was so out-of-his-depth against “The Greatest” that Sylvester Stallone used him as inspiration for the greatest underdog story of the century.

There was also Richard Dunn and Alfredo Evangelista.

The Evangelista fight in particular – toward the end of Ali’s second reign – was a torturous study in monotony. Ali barely mustered enough interest to jab (or train), while the plucky Evangelista – willing but limited – had just enough skill to follow him around the ring for 15 rounds.

The same Evangelista was back in the ring against another heavyweight champion a year later, this time vs. Larry Holmes. This time, he didn’t get the fortune of lasting 15 rounds. Holmes ended his night in the 7th. He probably could’ve done it at any point.

Holmes was forced to fight a string of capable-but-hopeless WBC contenders himself, from Evangelista to the much smaller Ossie Ocasio (a respected world champion in the cruiserweight division a few years later) to Lorenzo Zanon.

The Zanon fight was especially impossible. A tough, rugged Italian slugger from Italy, Zanon’s biggest win was over Evangelista. The fight, on a Sunday afternoon in Vegas, was never close. Or competitive. You got the feeling Holmes was sparring. Poor Zanon didn’t have a chance, as courageous as he was as a fighter.

In more recent times, some of you potential Usyk vs Dubois live stream watchers know Lennox Lewis snoozed to a decision over the overmatched Zelijko Mavrovic. Wladimir Klitschko did what he had to do against the likes of Tony Thompson and Alex Leapai over a long reign. People showed up and we watched. But it wasn’t very exciting.

This is not a knock on any of these fighters. Some, like Mavrovic, was undefeated going in. But one glance at his resume showed no one of Lewis’s ilk. You knew it was going to be a long night for the Croatian.

Simply, there are good boxers and there are great ones. And sometimes the chasm between good and great is obvious.

Yet we watch anyway, hoping – begging – to be surprised. We rarely are.

Usyk v Dubois Live Stream Saturday: Dubois Will Bring It

Dubois will bring it.

Know the show “Stranger Things?” Think about that show in the context of boxing…yes, stranger things have happened than Daniel Dubois getting a punchers' chance win on ESPN

Just as he did against Joyce in an entertaining 2020 scrap. He lost by 10th round knockout after he willingly took a knee after absorbing a big shot. He’s 4-0 since then, with all four coming by stoppage. As his record attests, he can punch. And he’s a heavyweight, so you just never know.

Unfortunately, he is going against one of the greats of the era. Granted, Usyk hasn’t fought in a year. With activity being so important to the success of a champion of his caliber, it could end up being a factor. And, as a natural cruiserweight, he is smaller than Dubois (the Brit is two inches taller at 6-foot-5). At 25, he is also 11 years younger than the great Ukrainian.

Even so, it’s tough to picture Dubois as the winner after the Usyk vs Dubois live stream ends. He didn’t have the mettle vs. Joyce. Stands to reason he won’t have it against Usyk either.

So we bide our time. Watching fights that are much less compelling than the ones we hoped for.

Matthew Aguilar may be reached at [email protected]