By Charles Brun: IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk will defend against secondary WBA champ Daniel Dubois tonigh LIVE on ESPN+ and on TNT Sports PPV at the Wroclaw Stadium in Poland.
Some Brits will want to see the match-up because it’ll be interesting for them to watch how the painfully slow but powerful Dubois deals with the movement, speed & precise punching from the more skilled Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs).
Main Card Time – LIVE on ESPN+ and TN Sports In UK
- Eastern Time (ET): 5 p.m.
- Pacific Time (PT): 2 pm pt
- British Summer Time (BST): 7 p.m.
- Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST): 4 a.m. (next day)
Main Event Estimated Start Time:
- Depending on how long the undercard fights last
Placing the Usyk-Dubois fight on pay-per-view is an interesting decision by the organizers of the event, but that’s part of TNT Sports opening up in the UK. It might sell a few buys in the UK, but probably not much unless the price is low.
It would be an insane idea to put Usyk vs. Dubois on PPV in the U.S. because Americans would not be interested in that train wreck-level fight.
Daniel Dubois’ last seven opponents:
– Kevin Lerena
– Trevor Bryan
– Joe Cusumano
– Bogdan Dinu
– Joe Joyce – *TKO 11 loss
– Kyotaro Fujimoto-
– Ricardo Snijders
In Dubois’s fight against former cruiserweight Kevin Lerena, he was repeatedly dropped in the first round, hitting the deck three times. Many boxing fans felt that the referee Howard Foster bent over backward by allowing Dubois to stay in there without stopping the contest because he suffered a knee injury.
What was strange about that fight is Lerena stopped punching completely beginning in the second round, allowing Dubois to come back to score a knockout in the third.
Dubois has already been stopped by Joe Joyce, and he came close to being knocked out by his last opponent, former cruiserweight Kevin Lerena last December.
The only reason Dubois is being given the opportunity to fight Usyk is he won the secondary WBA title last year by stopping Trevor Bryan in the fourth round.
The World Boxing Association has two belts at heavyweight, with the easy-to-hit chinny Dubois holding the less prestigious version.
Usyk has to get Dubois (19-1, 18 KOs) out of the way to move on and fight on the Saudi card in December or January. He still hopes to face WBC champion Tyson Fury on the Saudi card, but that remains to be seen.
Given Fury’s poor track record with his previous failed negotiations with Usyk and Anthony Joshua, it’s predictable that we won’t see an Usyk-Fury fight anytime soon.
Usyk has been out of the ring since last year when he beat Anthony Joshua in a rematch by a twelve round split decision.
The 2012 Olympic gold medalist Usyk attempted to put a fight together with Fury recently, but it fell apart over the rematch clause purse split. Many boxing fans believe Fury simply didn’t fancy the fight, so he made things difficult for Usyk to where he threw up his hands and walked away.
Fury, 34, is now expected to fight former UFC champion Francis Ngannou in an exhibition boxing match with no knockdown or knockout rule.
After that dud royally bombs at the box office, Fury will be in a weakened position to negotiate a fight with Usyk, which should help get the match made.
Usyk vs Dubois Undercard
- Oleksandr Usyk vs. Daniel Dubois, 12 rounds, heavyweight – Usyk’s WBA, WBO, IBF heavyweight titles
- Denys Berinchyk vs. Anthony Yigit, 12 rounds, lightweight
- Dmytro Mytrofanov vs. Hamzah Sheeraz, 12 rounds, middleweight
- Daniel Lapin vs. Aro Schwartz, 10 rounds, light heavyweight
- Fiodor Czerkaszyn vs. Anauel Ngamissengue, 8 rounds, middleweight
- Rafal Wolczecki vs. Roberto Arriaza, 8 rounds, middleweight
- Vasile Cebotari vs. Joel Julio, 8 rounds, welterweight
- Nursultan Amanzholov vs. Lazizbek Mullojonov, 6 rounds, heavyweight
- Oleksandr Solomennikov vs. Piotr Gudel, 6 rounds, featherweight
- Ziyad Almaayouf vs. Janos Penzes, 4 rounds, super lightweight
- Bryce Mills vs. Damian Tymosz, 4 rounds, super lightweight