By Charles Brun: Daniel Dubois is confident of dethroning the undefeated Oleksandr Usyk to relieve him of his heavy burden of holding down the IBF, WBA & WBO heavyweight titles on August 26th in Wroclaw, Poland.
Dubois says he’s going to “shock the world” against the unbeaten Usyk and knows? He might just do that. For sure, that would put a big smile on Tyson Fury’s gob because it’s obvious he wants no part of the slick, fast-moving southpaw Usyk, who is immune to the Grizzly bear mauling style that he’s adopted since teaming up with American trainer Sugarhill Steward several years ago.
If Fury had any confidence, we could look forward to a Usyk win over Dubois, knowing a big fight awaits between them in December in Saudi. But at this point, Fury is arguably semi-retired, fighting rarely and focusing on lesser opposition. He’s expected to fight an exhibition next against former UFC champion Francis Ngannou.
The younger, bigger, and stronger Dubois (19-1, 18 KOs) is catching the 36-year-old Usyk (20-0 13 KOs) at the right moment, with him coming off a twelve-month layoff since his win over Anthony Joshua in their rematch in August 2022.
Usyk would have been back already, but he wasted valuable time trying to negotiate an undisputed match against WBC champion Tyson Fury. If Usyk hadn’t wasted all the time with Fury, he would have already defended against the 25-year-old Dubois.
“I want to shock the world. I want to take him out and end the Usyk reign. You got to be crazy in there. You got to fight like a man possessed to beat him,” said Daniel Dubois to iFL TV about his title shot against IBF, WBA & WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk on August 26th in Poland.
“A knockout for sure. He’s definitely going down. And the NEW!”
One would have more confidence in Dubois pulling off the victory over Usyk if he hadn’t looked so godawful in his last fight against little-known diminutive Kevin Lerena last January.
Repeatedly, the 6’1″ southpaw Lerena caught Dubois with left hands in the opening round, dropping him three times and making him look like a yo-yo. If not for referee Howard Foster leaving Dubois in there, Lerena would have gotten a first round knockout.
On paper, Usyk schools slow as molasses Dubois and win a one-sided twelve round unanimous decision. If Usyk can throw a steady jab as Joe Joyce did, Dubois could quit at some point. He took a knee and quit against Joyuyce, and you know the saying. ‘Once a quitter, always a quitter.’
