By Geoff Cater: July has always been the month for British sport: Wimbledon, the British Grand Prix, the Open golf – but the rematch between Oleksander Usyk and Daniel Dubois makes this summer truly special.
Not only is it the first heavyweight world championship to be held in Britain unified by all four major belts – the challenger, Dubois (22-2), is a Brit. Hardly something that can be repeated annually.
Not enough? Dubois faces an all-time great in the champion, Usyk (23-0). For those of you who prefer unambiguous sporting legacies, if Usyk prevails at Wembley Stadium on 19 July, he will have achieved the following: amateur record: 335-15; Olympic gold; unified cruiserweight world champion; and unified heavyweight world champion. He will have beaten every major heavyweight rival not once, but twice (Anthony Joshua; Tyson Fury; Daniel Dubois – all of whom just happen to be British). And he will have accomplished the professional portion undefeated. Not so much as a knockdown (well, maybe one – more on that to come).
The sheer cleanliness of that potential record is almost enough to make you forsake patriotism for one night. But if the burden of his résumé weighs on Usyk, he certainly doesn’t show it.
“Yeah, no problem,” Usyk said with a shrug after being accosted in the ring by an embarrassed-looking Dubois following the Fury rematch. His trademark nonchalance was justified – he’d beaten Dubois in August 2023, between his bouts with Joshua and the Gypsy King.
Suffocatingly sublime, Usyk forced the young Londoner to take a knee figuratively and literally (in both the eighth and ninth rounds). The second time, Dubois waited out the count before rising. It reinforced the perception of a fighter whose resolve would collapse when it mattered most, a notion which began with his first defeat to fellow Englishman, Joe Joyce.
There are two major reasons, however, why the rematch is more compelling than the first fight would suggest: Dubois knocked Usyk down with a punch that was controversially ruled a low blow, and the challenger comes into the return fresh from demolishing Anthony Joshua in five rounds.
First Defeat: The Path to Poland
Prior to the Joyce defeat, everything had been in the ascendency for Dubois. At just 23 years old, he’d become British and Commonwealth champion, racking up a record of 15-0. The ‘Juggernaut’ was a major test for the vacant European title.
Dubois and Joyce were stylistic twins: front-foot boxer-punchers with giant physiques. Whilst Dubois had his moments, he had no answer to Joyce’s basic style and work rate, fortified by his wince-inducingly freakish chin (rumour has it five times the bone density of an average man) – which he seemingly had no qualms about using as a defensive strategy.
By round five, Dubois’ mere mortal bone density finally conceded to Joyce’s metronomic jab. Dubois kneeled and was counted out. The predictable criticism followed: he’d quit.
Swallowed it. It was later revealed he’d suffered a fractured orbital bone, nerve damage, and retinal bleeding, which provided some belated vindication.
Testament to the young man’s character, Dubois returned to the ring just six months later and it took only three fights and seven rounds to pick up the WBA “Regular” World title against American Trevor Bryan.
His first defence against Kevin Lerena almost ended in disaster – Dubois was down three times in the first round and looked on the verge of being stopped. Weakness in his knee ligaments, rather than glass in his chin. There could be no doubting his fortitude this time – he took out the South African in the third.
Even so, surgical procedures and only one camp with new trainer Don Charles (replacing Shane McGuigan) was hardly ideal preparation to face a generational great in Usyk.
Controversial First Fight
Held in Wrocław, Poland, it was a homecoming of sorts for Usyk in lieu of a war-torn Ukraine. In military terms, Dubois was seen as a ‘soft target’ – a greener version of Joshua, who had twice been schooled by Usyk.
A downpour early in the fight, a half-full stadium, and even the all-white colour scheme – canvas, ropes, and the champion’s shorts and gloves – created a strange, claustrophobic atmosphere.
Usyk’s style is deceptive, nothing particularly dramatic about it on the surface, but near-perfect footwork facilitates constant movement: circling, pivoting, gliding in and out of range; it all creates angles which confuse and frustrate. His southpaw jab is sharp, and his lead left hand controls his opponent’s guard and disrupts their rhythm. He then varies hand speed and uses feints and level changes to disguise power punches.
Like many an opponent before him, Dubois was systematically dismantled and driven to exhaustion – the winning knockdown scored with a single jab. Not that Dubois was without success – especially a sharp double jab followed by his dynamite right cross. Then there was round five. A counter uppercut landed on Usyk’s belt line and put the champion on his backside and exhaling in pain for over three minutes. The legality of that exact point on the belt line would be later subject to fierce debate.
Post fight, seemingly at the behest of promoter Frank Warren, a beaten and demoralised Dubois insisted he should be the champion with all the conviction of a hostage video. His team were more forthright at the press conference to announce the rematch, which was less typical argy-bargy and more photographic analysis (it may yet prove unwise for Dubois’ trainer to call Usyk a cheat to his face).
Of course, it all overlooks the question: if the referee had started, could Usyk have beaten the count? Dubois will never know the answer, but the question will give him confidence. Even if the shot was illegal, it was not low enough to affect Usyk’s virility, and body shots do seem to be one of the Ukrainian’s few vulnerabilities. In truth, Usyk is not a heavyweight, he’s a cruiserweight of such mastery he became champion of the marquee division. For all the advantages his smaller frame provides in terms of speed and agility, he cannot slip his body half an inch in the same way he can his head – at times, he simply has to absorb the tremendous forces a modern powerhouse can produce.
The closest Usyk has appeared to defeat is when forced to backpedal in the middle rounds of the second Joshua fight and the first Fury fight. There’s no denying it: he has been visibly hurt in the heavyweight division in a way he never was as a cruiserweight.
For all his profound technical skill, it’s perhaps his savvy ability to navigate these momentary crises, maintain a stoic expression until his head has cleared, that is the reason he still holds all the belts.
Usyk overcomes his opponent’s momentum with his unbeaten trinity: composure; conditioning; counters. Endurance is a significant factor. The likes of Dubois inevitably trade-off bigger muscles for less oxygen, and Usyk’s talent for pacing 12 rounds is equal to a track athlete executing the mile.
Dubois Destroys Joshua
Dubois once again bounced back from defeat with stoppage wins – this time against solid opposition in Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgović. A key weapon was his strong, stiff jab, which inflicted damage in its own right whilst also setting up his right hand or well-delivered combinations, often flowing smoothly from head to body. They also gave him the opportunity to show resilience when he got tagged, greater aggression at close quarters, and a clear desire not to go the distance.
These victories led to an all-British fight at Wembley Stadium last September with former world champion Anthony Joshua, a longtime household name courtesy of Olympic gold. In a blistering performance, Dubois knocked his compatriot down four times in five rounds. Joshua did manage to hurt Dubois badly in the fifth round – but as he moved in with an uppercut, Dubois finally dispatched him with a perfectly timed counter right.
Usyk, for his part, unified and then defended his titles against Fury in Saudi Arabia – both close, gruelling affairs. At 38, this will be his sixth consecutive heavyweight championship fight – not to mention the small matter of two months in the Territorial Army on the front lines of Kyiv between the Joshua fights. It’s almost a decade since he won his first cruiserweight world title. It all begs the question: when is it all going to catch up with him?
The Case for Dubois
In the aftermath of the Joyce defeat, it would have been fanciful to believe Dubois would now be favoured by many to become the unified champion.
Quiet and reserved by nature, he has shown deep resolve to rebuild his career. Dubois marched into the ring at Wembley Stadium against Joshua – the only common opponent he shares with Usyk – with a look of complete self-assurance. How did they compare? Usyk fought twenty-four highly competitive rounds. Dubois handed out a five-round shellacking.
Dubois is simply not the same man Usyk faced two years ago – now 27, Dubois is a mixture of youth and experience on the big stage. The coolness he showed when Joshua rocked him is telling. His response was no wild swing in desperation but a split-second calculation which resulted in a brutal knockout. There is a sense everything is with the younger man: momentum, confidence, home advantage.
The controversial low blow aside, he knows he shook Usyk both upstairs and downstairs during their first fight. Make no mistake: Dubois has the power to knock out the champion.
Unlike the dreary night in Poland, every punch he lands will reverberate with a roar from over 90,000 fans – something which can’t help but influence the judges. Points victories, though, should not be on his mind. Using a constant jab, and keeping just on the right side of recklessness, his best chance is to commit to an all-out assault, never allowing Usyk to settle – wave after wave of powerful combinations for as long as he can sustain them.
It’s a risky strategy, no question, but attempting to beat Usyk at his own game has proven a fool’s errand. Dubois seemed to recognise as much at the pre-fight press conference: “Fireworks, it’s going to be bombs away on the night. I’m going to be the one throwing bombs.”
Dubois has demonstrated those bombs are powerful enough to hurt Usyk, but this time he has the experience and belief to go further and seal victory.
The Case for Usyk
The anticipation of a Usyk regression is unfounded: he simply does not turn in sub-par performances. Whether it be Joshua’s petulance in the aftermath of his rematch, Fury resorting to cheap insults, or Dubois resigning on one knee – it is the British challengers who have capitulated mentally. Usyk, on the other hand, has remained physically and psychologically solid. He also has nine rounds’ experience with the Londoner percolating in his strategic brain.
Dubois may have concussive power but if explosiveness alone was enough, Usyk would have been relieved of his titles long ago. Has Dubois’ win over Joshua flattered him? ‘AJ’ looked a shadow of his former self and tactically at sea from the opening bell yet still managed to send Dubois reeling just prior to the dramatic ending.
The comeback wins against Miller and Hrgović, though impressive, showed several defensive weaknesses remain unaddressed – most notably, fighting in straight lines, which makes him vulnerable for counters; and a tendency to drop his hands whilst also keeping his head still. Above all, Dubois struggles with speed and movement – precisely Usyk’s strengths.
These technical shortcomings may be partly attributable to his size – 6’5’’ and 250 lb – but Dubois also opted to turn professional at 18 years old, rather than stay in the Olympic system. Usyk turned pro at 26: a difference of 275 amateur fights. Usyk is now one of the world’s finest boxers – a separation that occurred through natural ability and years of development in adolescence and young adulthood, not something that can be closed at this stage of their careers.
Prediction
Usyk is going to have to weather a storm in the early stages, one which may turn out to be the fiercest of his career. Ultimately, though, the gap between their fundamental boxing abilities will prove too great. Dubois’ experience and renewed grit may see him through to the final bell, but Usyk will win a competitive fight on the score cards.
If Dubois does get his revenge and upend the division, it will live in the memory long after Wimbledon winners and golf champions are forgotten. It will be one of the greatest accomplishments in British sporting history. On a summer’s night in London, when two great fighters must search deeper within themselves than ever before, special things can happen.
And that is simply unmissable.
Dubois vs Usyk II is live on DAZN PPV, 19th July 2025.