Fans are critical of Saturday’s Oleksandr Usyk vs. Daniel Dubois undercard, calling it ‘horrendously bad’ for an event at the 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium in London on July 19th. Lawrence Okolie vs. Kevin Lerena is the co-feature bout, and there’s no interest in that fight with fans. The other undercard fights are even more lackluster.
Disappointing London Underbelly
The $59.99 sticker price on DAZN PPV for the event is going to make it a barrier for the fans who are sitting on the fence, wondering whether to order it. Having a decent undercard would have helped. The way that the card it was put together, the focus appears to be solely on pleasing the UK fans, while ignoring U.S and Canadian audiences.
Skeletal Undercard: Wembley Shame
– Lawrence Okolie vs. Kevin Lerena
– Daniel Lapin vs. Lewis Edmondson
– Vladyslav Sirenko vs. Solomon Dacres
– Aadam Hamed vs. Ezequiel Gregores
– Lasha Guruli vs. James Francis
I don’t see one halfway decent fight on this undercard that is worth watching. Other than the main event, there’s nothing here at all that is even slightly appealing. I’m shocked that the event promoters chose to package this skeletal staff with the Usyk-Dubois 2 event, given it’s a small UK undercard.
There’s already scant fan appeal in seeing the two-time quitter IBF heavyweight champion Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) face WBA, WBC, and WBO champ Usyk (23-0, 14 KOs) in a rematch.
Dubois: The Quitter Problem
Dubois already quit two years ago in a ninth-round knockout loss to Usyk in 2023. Fans don’t want to see a second quit job by Daniel, as he’s shown that he doesn’t have it upstairs.
If there were at least one exciting match-up on the undercard, it would have helped get people interested in purchasing it. Would it be asking too much to have Joseph Parker vs. Moses Itauma on the undercard? That would be a good fight that would move the needle with fans.