Daniel Dubois is coming across as very aggressive going into his July 19th return fight with Oleksandr Usyk. The IBF heavyweight champ aims to get his revenge over Usyk, in so doing becoming the unified, four-belt king. And Dubois, giving us a pretty graphic hint regarding the tactics he plans to use in the fight that will play out before a huge crowd at Wembley, said he will pretty much hit Usyk anywhere and everywhere he can.
Dubois promises punishment—“any flesh” is fair game
Dubois – who is still adamant he was cheated out of a legit body shot knockout win when he fought Usyk in Poland a couple of years ago – says he won’t just target Usyk’s body when he shares a ring with him again, but that he will “whack any flesh” that he sees as being open to a punch.
“I need to win, simple as,” Dubois told The Ring. “All right, well, is the key going to be targeting Usyk’s body? No. Any flesh that I see, just whack it hard. You’ve seen him get hurt there but I’m not going to go crazy on it, just gotta mix it up. Many things went against me in that [first] fight and it ended the way it did, you saw it, but I’ve come back and feel like a new person. The whole experience has driven me on, to succeed and improve.”
Krassyuk calls it a new fight—but Usyk hasn’t changed
Usyk’s promoter Alex Krassyuk says he sees the rematch as a “completely different fight” to the first one between Usyk and Dubois. Krassyuk stresses how dangerous Dubois will be in the rematch.
“Usyk remains the same, he’s on his highest heights, but Daniel isn’t a kid anymore,” Krassyuk said. “He’s a mature man with big muscles and even bigger experience, it’s a completely different fight now.”
It really could be that we see Usyk, 23-0(14) tested harder than ever before on July 19. Usyk is the favourite to win, and we all know the Ukrainian has no problems fighting away from home, in the other guy’s backyard, but in this fight, if Dubois, 22-2(21) can turn it into a rough, tough, very physical affair, he might be able to have his way. Usyk, though, is a master boxer with a very high ring IQ, and plenty of good judges feel the 38 year old will out-think Dubois, outbox him, and ultimately demoralise him.
Still, the respective ages of the two fighters could prove to be a factor, and here Dubois holds a big advantage, with him being just 27 years old. Will youth be served in the return fight?
