WBA orders Oleksandr Usyk vs. Daniel Dubois

By Boxing News - 04/03/2023 - Comments

By Jake Tiernan: Oleksandr Usyk has been ordered by the WBA to begin negotiations to defend his IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight titles against mandatory Daniel Dubois next. The two have been given one month to put together a fight until May 2nd before a purse bid.

(Photo credit: Queensberry Promotions)

This could be a blowout win for the talented 2012 Olympic gold medalist and former undisputed Usyk against the easy-to-hit Dubois, the equivalent of a World War 1 tank, the glacially slow British Mark IV.

If you’re the management for Dubois, it would be better to take a step aside to give him more time for his recently injured knee to strengthen and hope that Usyk is beaten so you can get your man off the hook.

Dubois (19-1, 18 KOs) is not the opponent that boxing fans wanted to see Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) face next, as they had hoped that he would defend against Deontay Wilder, who was recently installed as the #1 WBA contender last week by the sanctioning body.

Some fans still want Usyk to give Dubois, 25, a step-side payment so Deontay can be his next opponent. Dubois would then face the winner of the Usyk vs. Wilder fight.

It’s unlikely that will happen because the management for Dubois will probably choose to make the immediate fight with Usyk, gambling that their young fighter will win, and they can then make an undisputed in-house clash with WBC champion Tyson Fury.

Given how terrible Dubois looked in his last fight against South African Kevin Lerena last December and in his loss to Joe Joyce, it would be better if they took the step aside if offered by Usyk’s management and let the Usyk-Wilder clash take place, with the condition that they get the winner.

Dubois holds the WBA ‘regular’ heavyweight title that he won last June, stopping Trevor Bryan in the fourth round. Some people complained that Joe Joyce should have been the one challenging the vulnerable champion Bryan for his secondary WBA title rather than Dubois, considering that he’d stopped him in the tenth round in their fight in November 2020.

All Dubois had done since then was beat two mediocre fighters in, Bogdan Dinu and Joe Cusumano, to earn a title shot against then-WBA champion Trevor Bryan.

Dubois suffered a knee injury while getting knocked down three times in the first round by Lerena last December.