Usyk vs. Dubois talks stall, WBA scheduled purse bid for May 25th

By Boxing News - 05/15/2023 - Comments

By Jake Tiernan: Negotiations have reportedly stalled out for a fight between IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk & Daniel Dubois, resulting in a purse bid being scheduled by the WBA for May 25th.

Dan Rafael is reporting the WBA’s purse bid for the Usyk-Dubois fight will take place in Houston, Texas on May 25th, with the minimum bid of $1 million and the split 75/25 in the champion Usyk’s favor.

It’s unknown whether Dubois’ injured right knee will be ready for him to fight this summer. He hurt it in the Kevin Lerena fight last December after being repeatedly dropped by the South African three times in round one.

There’s talk that Dubois won’t be ready to fight until the second half of the year, which won’t work for Usyk because he hopes to fight in December in Saudi Arabia.

Dubois (19-1, 18 KOs) has been maneuvered well by his promoter since losing to Joe Joyce by a tenth round knockout in October 2020. ‘

Dynamite’ Dubois’ promoter got three easy wins since that fight against Joe Cusumanu, Trevor Bryan, and Kevin Lerena. Trevor Bryan was the WBA secondary champion and no match for Dubois, who destroyed him in four rounds last June.

Regardless of who wins the purse bid, this comes at a bad time for Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) because he potentially could be facing WBC champion Tyson Fury in December in Saudi Arabia as part of a huge card involving Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua also on the card.

Earlier today, Usyk reported that his negotiations with Fury had reached an “impasse,” it’s unclear whether the two will find a way to agree to fight in December.

If not, it’ll be interesting to see if the Saudis from Skills Challenge would be open to Fury & Usyk fighting other opponents on their December card.

Fury’s attempts to negotiate a fight with Andy Ruiz Jr also fizzled. Promoter Eddie Hearn said today that Ruiz priced himself out for the Fury fight. If Fury fights a fringe-level contender, he won’t have to worry about them pricing themselves out.

At the same time, would the Saudis be interested in having Fury fight a bottom-level contender on their December card? They’d probably still like to have Fury on the card, but the money they’d be paying would change.

In view of how Dubois looked in his last fight against Kevin Lerena last December, Usyk should have no problems beating him.

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