Via Charles Brun: Oleksandr Usyk will defend his unified three-belt heavyweight championship against his WBA mandatory Daniel Dubois on August 26 in front of an expected crowd. 43,000 fansaccording to his promoter Alex Krassyuk.
Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) finally gets to fight in front of a crowd of many of his fellow Ukrainians, who are now living in Poland after the country came to their aid.
This is a fight Uyk has to win so he can meet WBC belt holder Tyson Fury or maybe someone else in December in Saudi Arabia.
Dubois (19-1, 18 KOs) will be a tough opponent for Usyk as the British boxer has beaten his last 4 opponents since being stopped by Joe Joyce in 2020.
Without a cheering crowd, Dubois, 25, would have to go on the field alone, battling the talented 2012 Olympic gold medalist Usyk. With Dubois’s strength, you can’t rule out a nasty win as he’s a dangerous puncher.
If Dubois wins, we could see him fight Fury at the end of the year. Whether it will be in Saudi Arabia or the UK will be interesting to see.
“August 24 is Ukraine’s Independence Day. Usyk hasn’t competed as a home fighter since 2015, which is eight years, and during this time he has become the undisputed cruiser class champion. He’s become the unified heavyweight champion, and it’s time for him
finally became a house fighter at least once,” Alex Krassyuk told iFL TV.
“Unfortunately, we cannot do this in Ukraine because you know the reason, of course, and everyone knows the reason, but Poland is our neighbor, brother country or sister country. our brother, or both. At the same time, Poland helped us a lot.
“Just ordinary, ordinary Ukrainians who had to leave Ukraine after the war started, and now there are more than 2 million Ukrainians living in Poland and in the region where [Usyk vs. Dubois] war will take place.
“We have more than 200,000 Ukrainians and this will be a real, real celebration for them and Ukraine’s Independence Day, which is
an important holiday uh for all of us. The day of something we are fighting for, so we want to dedicate this fight for Ukraine to our homeland.
“That’s why we wanted to create a special Festival of Brotherhood between our Nations and hold it in the city of Wrocław to bring this celebration to the Ukrainian people to the people of Brazil. Lan let the people around that venue come together and celebrate and have the final point of the biggest fight in heavyweight so far.
“43,000,” Krassyuk said when asked what audience size is expected to see Usyk vs Dubois on August 26.
