By Charles Brun: Promoter Frank Warren believes Daniel Dubois will do a job on unbeaten unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk this Saturday, August 26th, at the Stadion Wroclaw in Wroclaw, Poland.
Warren feels that the bigger, stronger & younger 25-year-old Dubois (19-1, 18 KOs) will knock out the unbeaten 2012 Olympic gold medalist Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs).
He wants Dubois to jump on Usyk early in the contest to gain his respect, as he feels it would be a mistake for him to try and outbox him the way Anthony Joshua did.
It appears that Dubois has been working on his hand speed and combination punching because he looks a lot faster than he was in his previous fight last December against Kevin Lerena.
Surprisingly, there isn’t much buzz about the Usyk vs. Dubois fight in the boxing community. One reason is that the fight hasn’t been marketed as well as it should have. At this point, it’s probably too late to create a ton of interest in the fight, even if it were suddenly sold to the public.
Will Dubois quit again?
“He’s got to gain his respect. He’ll have his respect anyway before the fight, but as soon as that bell goes, he has to impose himself,” said Frank Warren to TNT Sports Boxing about what Daniel Dubois must do this Saturday night to defeat IBF, WBA & WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.
“He’s [Dubois] still going to knock him whats it out. I think he wins it. I’ve said that from day one. He will win it; I wouldn’t have made the fight otherwise,” Warren continued about the 25-year-old Dubois, who comes into his fight against Usyk as the underdog.
Usyk has the mobility, speed & boxing ability to neutralize the size and power of Dubois. For Dubois to do well, he needs Usyk to be stationary like his last opponent, Lerena.
“He’s got to control the fight early on. We can’t do what Joshua did, and that’s show too much respect [to Usyk] and was getting out-jabbed and outboxed by a smaller guy,” Warren said about Dubois. “He’s got to get on. As soon as that bell gets on, he’s got to impose himself and use all his physical attributes against Usyk.”
Dubois quit when the going got tough in his fight against Joe Joyce in 2020, and all that guy did was use his jab to puff up his left eye. As the saying goes, ‘Once a quitter, always a quitter.’ If Dubois quit once, it’s fair to say he’ll quit again when faced with adversity.
“He’s a smart guy; he’s got an impeccable record as a professional and amateur boxer. He is the most skillful fighter that Daniel is ever going to get in the ring with. Having said that, if he wants to win a world title, you can’t handpick who you will fight. He’s going to hold the belts. You can’t do that,” said Warren.
Usyk will have crowd on his side
“If you want it, go and do it, and believe you can do it. That is the most important thing. If you’ve got the skills and the ability, which he’s got, he’s got the belief to do it, then he can do it,” said Warren about Dubois.
“If he [Dubois] can catch him, he’ll gain his respect. He won’t knock him out with a big shot, but he’ll gain his respect. It’s in Poland, but it’s in an area where there are a lot of Ukrainian refugees, so I think the crowd is going to be 95% in their favor. They’ve got it all to do,” said Warren about the crowd likely to be pro-Usyk this Saturday night in Poland.
