On August 26, heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk will defend his WBA, WBO and IBF titles against Daniel Dubois in Poland. The Ukrainian camp does not expect a walk in the ring, but Usyk promoter Alexander Krassyuk gave a clear prognosis in an interview with sport.de.
Usyk enters the ring at the Wroclaw stadium as the clear favorite, but don’t underestimate Dubois, said Krassyuk. The Briton is a dangerous opponent. “We all know his punching power. He can solve any problem with just one shot. He’s not that technical, but when he scores he has a very strong argument for victory,” emphasized the promoter. The 1.96 meter tall Dubois has won 18 of his 20 professional fights by knockout, leaving the ring once as a loser.
Dubois can not only hit, so Krassyuk. The 25-year-old is inexperienced, but showed in his last fight what he’s made of. “Against Kevin Larena he seriously injured his knee. He was barely able to stand up. He was down three times. But he found the will and courage in his heart to come back and knock the guy out,” recalled Krassyuk at Dubois’ performance in London last December. Dubois had already hit the boards in round 1 against the South African Lerena. Despite obvious knee pain, he saved himself during the lap break before the 110-kilo package hit back in lap 3 and knocked Lerena off her feet.
Krassyuk doesn’t believe that “Dynamite” Dubois is causing his protégé any serious problems. “Usyk will start slowly, see what happens, how the opponent moves, how fast he is. Then he will give a boxing lesson, use his footwork, attack from different angles and eat Daniel Dubois’ heart,” he said Promoter in conversation with sport.de.
“After six rounds, the Brit will be “depressed” because he can’t land his strong punch. Once he has the target in front of him, it will disappear and hit him from a different angle. This is frustrating. And as frustration mounts, Usyk will combine fast punches with hard punches. I see the fight ends prematurely after round 8. Maybe through a crash or a technical knockout,” Krassyuk predicted an early victory for the world champion. One of Usyk’s great strengths is “that he’s picking up the pace lap by lap. Normally one starts quickly in the first three or four rounds and then builds up. Usyk does it the other way around. After the eighth round, he blossoms.”
36-year-old Usyk is undefeated in 20 fights as a prizefighter, winning 13 times by knockout! However, it has been almost four years since his last victory before the final bell. After his debut as a cruiserweight pro (up to 90.72 kilograms), the 2012 Olympic champion conquered all recognized world championship belts. After his rise to heavyweight division, Usyk dethroned Anthony Joshua in the summer of 2021, whom he also defeated on points in the rematch in Saudi Arabia.
Boxing: Fury vs. Usyk not over yet
With a win over Dubois, the 1.90 meter man wants to maintain the chance of a showdown with WBC world champion Tyson Fury. The battle of the undefeated heavyweight world champions failed in the spring after months of negotiations. Fury faces ex-UFC champion Francis Ngannou, who has yet to fight professionally as a prizefighter, in Saudi Arabia in October.
The duel with Ngannou was “absolute rubbish from a boxing perspective,” Krassyuk criticized. He thinks it is “very likely” that the fight between Fury and Usyk is still to come, said Krassyuk: “That’s my intuition, my feeling.” The unification showdown has now “been marinated for quite a while,” the Ukrainian alluded to a wisdom from promoter godfather Bob Arum (91), according to which big fights, like a good steak, have to be marinated long enough. “Maybe the fight will be marinated a little more. But the good thing is, it’s going to be served as dessert.”
Promoters in Saudi Arabia have been working for months on a mega event where, in addition to Fury and Usyk, superstars Joshua and Deontay Wilder are also supposed to box against each other. British media reported a financial volume of around 300 million dollars.
Martin Armbruster