Daniel Dubois gave a round of interviews with various members of the media yesterday, this after doing a few rounds in an open work-out ahead of next Saturday’s challenge of reigning and defending WBA/IBF/WBO heavyweight champ Oleksandr Usyk. The once-beaten Dubois, the WBA mandatory challenger, is talking a good game with less than two weeks to go until fight night in Poland.
Letting slip a little of the game plan new coach Don Charles has formulated, “Dynamite” said he plans to make it physical for Usyk, he plans to make it rough. The bigger and more powerful man, Dubois – given only the proverbial puncher’s chance by quite a few judges and experts – says he will “bully” Usyk in there.
“Pure and simple you go out there and cause destruction on the guy, you know, put it on him,” Dubois said to Boxing Social when stating his intentions against the unbeaten southpaw champ. “I’m a heavyweight, he’s a cruiserweight, and I need to show that, be the bully out there. I’m 25, it’s my time.”
Dubois also said he plans to “hit Usyk anywhere I can, the elbows, anywhere.” Dubois says he aims to “win by any means necessary.” It will be interesting to see what happens if Dubois CAN force Usyk to fight a rough affair, if he can force him into a street fight type battle. Thus far as heavyweight, only Derek Chisora has really pushed Usyk hard. Anthony Joshua did do better in his return fight with Usyk, with AJ hurting Usyk with a body shot in the ninth round, but we’ve never seen the gifted Ukrainian take a hefty wallop to the head that wobbled him or visibly stunned him.
Will this change next Saturday? Pinning Usyk down and nailing him with a good shot is far from easy, it is easier said than done. But it’s encouraging for Dubois supporters, the way the challenger is talking going into the biggest fight of his career. It would be a big upset if Dubois did manage to do it on August 26th, and a Usyk defeat really would shake up the heavyweight division.
But it’s tough to go against the champion here. Dubois has never before met anyone quite like Usyk before, while the defending champion has faced big punchers before. Is Dubois fast enough to be able to get anything going, to be able to have any real success against Usyk?
