• Pound-for-pound star Usyk has won all 20 professional fights and will make a second defence of his unified title.
• An undisputed fight between Usyk and Britain’s WBC world champion Tyson Fury was set to take place at London’s Wembley Stadium in April but fell through after disagreements over a rematch clause and purse split.
Image: FILE
Heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk will defend his WBO, WBA (Super) and IBF titles against Briton Daniel Dubois in Wroclaw, Poland on August 26.
Ukrainian Usyk, 36, will face Dubois — the WBA mandatory challenger — at the 24,000-capacity Tarczynski Arena. Dubois, 25, holds the WBA (Regular) belt and has won 19 fights, with 18 knockouts, and been defeated once.
“He is a great fighter and I do respect him, but it’s my time now,” Dubois said. “I’m going to shock the world and show people how good Daniel Dubois really is.”
Pound-for-pound star Usyk has won all 20 professional fights and will make a second defence of his unified title.
“I am very glad that we have the opportunity to organise my fight in Poland, where I won my first world title seven years ago,” Usyk said.
The fight, originally scheduled for August 12, was pushed back by two weeks to more closely align with Ukraine’s Independence Day, which falls on August 24. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, more than a million Ukrainian refugees relocated to Poland.
“I want to thank the Polish people who are helping Ukraine so sincerely,” Usyk added: “Hundreds of thousands of my compatriots have been hosted by this wonderful country.
“Therefore, I hope that my fight will become one more opportunity for Ukrainians and people of Poland to unite and strengthen our friendship.”
Usyk, a former undisputed cruiserweight champion, dethroned Briton Anthony Joshua at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in September 2021, before winning the rematch in August 2022 in Saudi Arabia.
An undisputed fight between Usyk and Britain’s WBC world champion Tyson Fury was set to take place at London’s Wembley Stadium in April but fell through after disagreements over a rematch clause and purse split.
A historic Usyk-Fury contest — the first undisputed heavyweight fight in the four-belt era — was mooted to take place in Saudi in December as part of a mammoth heavyweight card also featuring Anthony Joshua v Deontay Wilder.
Fury’s co-promoter Frank Warren has said that Fury-Usyk is unlikely to happen this year. According to reports, Fury may fight former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in an exhibition next. But Egis Klimas, Usyk’s manager, says he is still hopeful victory over Dubois will “lead to the biggest clash in the world” against Fury.
In May, just three months before his maiden world-title shot, Dubois split with trainer Shane McGuigan and will now be trained by Don Charles. The Londoner turned professional in 2017 and soon established himself as one of the brightest prospects in heavyweight boxing with a string of impressive knockout wins.
“To the outside world, Daniel is a big outsider,” his promoter Frank Warren said. “But here at Queensberry we are supremely confident in his ability to cause a major upset and achieve the status he set out to realise when he turned professional with us back in 2017.”
In his 16th fight, however, he came up short against fellow Briton Joe Joyce in 2020. Despite being ahead on two of the three judges’ scorecards, Dubois took a knee in the 10th round and failed to beat the count.
Dubois was rushed to hospital and was diagnosed with a broken orbital bone and nerve damage to his left eye. He returned to the ring with two stoppage victories and then in June 2022 won the WBA (Regular) title — to become number one challenger — by knocking out American Trevor Bryan in Miami.
In December, Dubois was knocked down three times in the first round before stopping South Africa’s Kevin Lerena in the third.