Unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk will be returning to the ring on August 26th against British heavyweight contender Daniel Dubois. Their battle is set to take place in a yet-to-be-announced venue in Poland.
Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13 KO’s) is regarded as one of the best fighters in the modern era and has proven as such by becoming undisputed as a cruiserweight, and a unified champion as a heavyweight after defeating the long-reigning British former unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (25-3, 22 KO’s).
The opponent that Usyk is facing, Daniel Dubois (19-1, 18 KO’s), commonly known by his moniker DDD, presents quite a different challenge for Oleksandr Usyk. 25-year old Dubois is undoubtedly one of the youngest top heavyweights in the division, and certainly carries the advantages of youth being 11 years younger than 36-year old Usyk. Even at his young age, Dubois has curtailed almost as many fights as Usyk but their experience vastly differs.
While Oleksandr Usyk has faced plentiful of challenging opponents and become a world champion in two different divisions while arguably facing the best, Dubois’ only top-rated opponent to date was fellow Brit and stablemate Joe Joyce who he lost to in 2020. Though Dubois is acknowledged as the WBA ‘regular’ champion, the title seems to be a mere placeholder to designate a mandatory for the actual champion who is commonly known as a ‘super’ champion.
Highly-skilled and efficient, Oleksandr Usyk has experience and skill in spades and will undoubtedly be Daniel Dubois’ toughest test to date. Though 36 years of age, Usyk still looks to be very much in his prime and hasn’t suffered any noticeable decay in his physical ability even since he moved up to heavyweight in 2019.
Though highly-regarded himself, Daniel Dubois is not yet considered to be on par with Usyk when it comes to ability but he does have one thing on his side that may cause a potential upset; power. With a KO ratio of over 90%, Dubois’ power is considered to best chance of winning against the Ukrainian.
While definitely not unskilled, Dubois still seems to lack some of the refinement of an elite heavyweight after showing weaknesses in defense during his close-sided win over Kevin Lerena in December of 2022. South African Lerena managed to knock Dubois down thrice in the 1st round of their bout which exposed some of the Brit’s defensive shortcomings. Though these knockdowns were attributed to a leg injury, his defensive fundamentals were exposed during the match.
Oleksandr Usyk will be defending his WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles on August 26th. Daniel Dubois qualifies to win all these titles if he manages to win against the Ukrainian.
