Today, August 26, a big boxing evening will take place in Wroclaw, headlined by a heavyweight title fight. Oleksandr Usyk will try to defend the world champion belts from the young British Daniel Dubois.
For Usyk, this is another step in the attempt to fight for the title of absolute world champion with Tyson Fury and at the same time regain the first line of the P4P ranking. For Dubois, it’s the chance of a lifetime for him. Promoter Frank Warren assures that the winner of today’s fight will definitely face the Gypsy King: “There is no clause here about a rematch, because this is a mandatory defense. The winner will continue to fight for the belts and will challenge Tyson in a unification fight. It will happen! Whatever the outcome, there will be an undisputed title fight early next year.”
All the most important and interesting about Usyk’s fight with Dubois:
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Oleksandr Usyk – Daniel Dubois: The British puncher is ready to rip off all the belts. LIVE
In general, almost all the best boxers in the world pay tribute to Dubois’ knockout power, but see Usyk as the clear favorite of the matchup.
Deontay Wilder hopes for the champion’s early victory and even tries to guess in which round it will happen: “It seems to me that Usyk will win by knockout. I think the knockout can happen in the eighth round. I don’t think Dubois has fully recovered from his injury.”
Anthony Joshua, who lost twice in a row to Usyk, highly appreciates his former opponent’s skill level, but expects his compatriot to walk out of the ring with the belts at the end of the evening: “Of course, Dubois has a chance. gain. However, this is a difficult question. The thing is, Usyk is relying on his ability, not his power, to knock you out. He will box around you if you let him. Good luck Dubois, good luck Don Charles, good luck to the great British boxing. We can bring the heavyweight championship back to our soil.”
Two-time Olympic champion Alexei Tishchenko also shared his forecast for the upcoming fight and does not see how Dubois will be able to oppose his opponent: “It seems to me that Alexander will win without problems, boxers of very different levels. The duel in general is not interesting from a sporting point of view, it involves athletes of different classes and there will not be much competition there. The only question is whether Usyk wins ahead of schedule or not.”
Joe Joyce, the only boxer to beat Dubois in the professional category, explained what Daniel’s opportunity is, but he doesn’t really believe in such an outcome: “I think Usyk will dance around him. Dubois can’t hit him; he couldn’t hit me when we fought, so he can’t hit Usyk either. Dubois has a good punch, but it’s impossible to hit someone who moves well. Usyk will dance around him and will be knocked asleep. There is a small chance that Dubois will land a good shot on him, but I don’t think that possibility is real.
Former world champion David Haye, by contrast, believes the deep outsider status will give Dubois some advantage and ease the burden: “I like that there is no pressure on Dubois. He has everything to win. Nobody expects him to be upset. He has firepower and all he needs is one hit, one clean hit.
From the outside it seems like an impossible mission, but I like what I hear from him. He says that Usyk will be difficult and uncomfortable, and that’s exactly what he has to do. He can fall, hurt himself, hurt his face, but he’s going to have to go through this to get to the promised land if he wants to have a chance to seriously break into the heavyweight division.
The legendary Mike Tyson even claimed that he had never seen Usyk’s rival in action before: “I had never seen Dubois in the ring before. Therefore, in this pairing I will bet on the champion Usyk.
Dubois managed to take down Joshua, but can he do it with Usyk?
Dubois took down Joshua himself! Will we see Usyk fall?
The main person who sincerely believes in Dubois’s victory is Daniel himself. He tried to connect some pretty tough trash talk and throw Usyk off balance: “To me, he’s an old man. I will break his bones and remove his belts. Don Charles prepared me for this fight. It was hard work. Now you have to go find yours. Whatever it is, this is my moment.”
The champion himself before the fight was more restrained and emphatically respectful: “I respect him. Some people on the internet underestimate something. I treat each of my opponents with great respect.
This is a challenge and I need to meet what is in front of me. If he claims, I need to box him. I am not going to run away from anyone or look for convenient moments for myself. I don’t really consider other people’s reviews or opinions, but if you have to, then you just have to. I can’t say that I followed him a lot, but from some point I don’t remember who he boxed with, I saw his fights and who he boxed with. I knew that maybe one day I would have to fight this guy.”
So we have very little time left to find out how the showdown between technique and skill against knockout power will end. And in a situation where nothing is expected of the underdog, there is always the possibility of a big surprise.
