By Jake Tiernan: Promoter Frank Warren predicts that his fighter WBA ‘regular” heavyweight champion Daniel ‘Dynamite’ Dubois will stop IBF/WBA/WBO champ Oleksandr Usyk when the two fight next.
(Photo credit: Queensberry)
It could be difficult for Dubois to land his big shots on an elusive target like Usyk, and he might be sorry he took the fight, especially with Daniel coming off knee surgery last January.
If the potential for a step aside is there for Dubois, he needs to think about it because he matches up better against Deontay Wilder than Usyk.
Warren says Dubois (19-1, 18 KOs) will NOT step aside for Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) to fight somebody else, but if he did, it would need to be something extra special with the condition that he was guaranteed to fight the winner.
Just how much money Dubois would need to be given for him to step aside for Usyk to face Deontay Wilder next is unclear. If Dubois does agree to step aside, he would need to be guaranteed to fight the winner.
Most would agree that Wilder vs. Dubois would be a bigger fight than Usyk-Dubois, and there would be much interest.
Dubois will stop Usyk predicts Warren
“It was a bad injury; he was very hampered in the fight, as you could see. He couldn’t plant his feet properly, but he fought through the pain barrier and stopped Lerena,” said Frank Warren to Queensberry about Daniel Dubois’s knee injury sustained last December in the first round against former cruiserweight Kevin Lerena.
“It was a very good stoppage, having been in trouble himself, and he’s had an operation. He had an operation in the first week of January, and he’s been given an all-clear to get back in training,” Warren continued bout Dubois.
“He can’t fight tomorrow or next month because he’s obviously got a ways to go, but come the end of June or July, he’ll be good to go.
“Whatever happens, if we can’t agree to terms, it’ll be ordered, so the fight will happen, which is good because it will stop all the nonsense, and it will have to take place,” Warren said of the Usyk vs. Dubois clash. “So if we have a purse bid, we’ll have a purse bid.
“If they don’t agree, it will go to purse bids. Whatever happens, Daniel will be there facing him [Usyk], and he’ll have to make the defense, and Daniel will beat him. It is a big statement, but I believe he can do it and will do it.
“I think he’ll stop him,” Warren said in predicting Dubois will knockout Oleksandr Usyk. “He’s got a very good jab, and he’s a big, big puncher. If he catches him, he’ll go, and he will catch him. He’s a very big man, Daniel, and I think it’s his time; I really do think so.
“I think my man has the beating of Usyk. The same as I felt that Tyson [Fury] had the beating of [Deontay] Wilder in the first fight, and he proved it in the second fight. I felt he’d knock him out in the second fight. I feel he has the beating of him [Usyk],” Warren said.
Usyk-Dubois will do “good numbers”
“It’ll do good numbers because Daniel has had good numbers on BT,” said Warren when asked how he expects Usyk vs. Dubois to perform on pay-per-view. “One of the fights he had was one of the highest ratings in that particular year, so it’ll do well.
“The audience has seen Usyk, and they’ve seen Daniel fight, and what people do know is it will be a fight. It’s not a rollover. It’s a much better fight than watching AJ against Franklin on paper. Do you not think so? I think it’s a fight that people will buy into.
“Listen, if they do, they do; if they don’t, they don’t, but it will also tell us how big a draw Usyk is. I don’t think he’s a draw against Tyson because Tyson has proven what he does. A guy that goes out and sells 160,000 tickets in his last two fights and breaks box office records that’s Tyson Fury. That’s the fact of life. Daniels has not done that. Of course, he’s not done that, but, by the way, neither has Usyk.
“The argument put forth about Usyk is that he’s a big attraction in America. I had that conversation with Simon Jordan a couple of weeks ago. That’s the point that he was making, but he’s not a big attraction in the states,” Warren said about Usyk.
“Daniel has had a few fights in the States which were televised. He’s been seen on ESPN+, but we’ll see. You got to start somewhere. When Tyson had his first fight with Dereck Chisora, there were 2,000 people in the building. That’s the fact of life. That’s not against anybody.
“You start somewhere. There has to be a starting point. Derek Chisora and Tyson didn’t come in winning a gold medal from being seen on terrestrial TV, winning that to become a darling of the British public.
“That didn’t happen, but the work was put in by Tyson to get where he’s at now with the performances in the ring and look where he’s at. That happens.
“Daniel Dubois should take that on board and look at it and think to yourself, ‘Can I do it? Will I be able to do it?’ We’ll see, won’t we? If he beats Usyk, he’s up there big time. So he’s taking the opportunity. He’s not ducking out. He’s taking the opportunity and forcing the issue,” Warren said.
Daniel Dubois not stepping aside
“I don’t want to go down there at the moment. It’s not being evasive about it,” about a step aside for Dubois. “Daniel wants the fight, and that’s it,” said Frank.
“It would have to be something extra special for him to give up the opportunity, and the only way he would give it up, I’m quite sure, is if he was guaranteed to fight the winner, but that’s not where we want to be.
“What he’s focusing on and what we’re focusing on is that big fight [against Usyk]. Between him and Usyk is a big fight, and it’s going to be a good fight. A lot of people will have an opinion on it, and a lot of people will say that I’m talking a lot of rubbish. We’ll see.
“He’s [Dubois] not stepping aside. That’s not what we’re working on.
“I got a lot out of that fight [Anthony Joshua vs. Jermaine Franklin] on Saturday, and it told me a lot about Usyk as well,” said Warren.
