Via Charles Brun: IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk will defend second WBA champion Daniel Dubois next month on August 26 on TNT Sports PPV at Wroclaw Stadium in Poland.
It’s not clear what TNT Sports will be looking for in terms of PPV butyrate for Usyk-Dubois, but can’t imagine that it will be high.
Some Brits will want to watch the match as it will be interesting to see how the slow but powerful Dubois deals with the more skilled Usyk’s precise movement, speed and punch (20-0, 13 KOs) .
We’ll see if this fight takes place next month as it hasn’t been officially announced yet. If the massive 6’5″ tall Dubois wins, it will make it easier for his promoters at Queensberry to set up an undisputed championship fight with WBC champion Tyson Fury.
One can imagine the Saudis wouldn’t want a Fury & Dubois fight as part of their Anthony Joshua card versus their Deontay Wilder in Saudi Arabia later this year in December.
The Saudis want Usyk and Fury, but it’s still not certain that the fight will happen. It will depend on whether Fury is willing to negotiate.
Putting the Usyk-Dubois match on pay-per-view was an interesting decision by the event organisers, but it was part of the TNT Sports opening in the UK. It may sell for some UK buys, but probably not much unless the price is low.
It would be a crazy idea to put Usyk against Dubois on TNT Sports PPV in the US because the Americans wouldn’t be interested in a fight at that level of wreck.
Daniel Dubois’ final seven opponents:
– Kevin Lerena
– Trevor Bryan
– Joe Cusumano
– Bogdan Dinu
– Joe Joyce – *TKO 11 losses
– Kyotaro Fujimoto-
– Ricardo Snijders
In Dubois’ match against former cruiser Kevin Lerena, he was repeatedly knocked out in the first round, hitting the floor three times. Many boxing fans felt that referee Howard Foster leaned back when he allowed Dubois to stay there without stopping the competition because he had a knee injury.
The strange thing about that fight was that Lerena stopped punching completely early in the second round, allowing Dubois to return to score the knockdown in the third round.
Dubois was stopped by Joe Joyce, and he was nearly knocked out by his final opponent, the former cruiser Kevin Lerena last December.
The only reason Dubois had a chance against Usyk was because he won the minor WBA title last year by stopping Trevor Bryan in the fourth round.
The World Boxing Association has two belts in heavyweight, with the easy Dubois holding the less prestigious version.
Usyk must knock Dubois (19-1, 18 KOs) to go through and fight Saudi in December or January. He still hopes to face WBC champion Tyson Fury on the Arab card, but that remains to be seen.
Given Fury’s poor record with his previous failed negotiations with Usyk and Anthony Joshua, it can be expected that we won’t see Usyk-Fury fight anytime soon.
Usyk has been out of the ring since last year when he defeated Anthony Joshua in a decisive twelfth round rematch.
2012 Olympic gold medalist Usyk recently tried to fight Fury, but it failed because of the split rematch clause. Many boxing fans believe that Fury simply doesn’t like fighting, so he made it so difficult for Usyk that he threw up his arms and walked away.
Fury, 34, is now expected to face former UFC champion Francis Ngannou in an exhibition boxing match with no knockdown or knockout rules.
After that royal bombshell at the box office, Fury will be in a weak position to negotiate a fight with Usyk, which should get the match done.
