Oleksandr Usyk signed a contract to fight Daniel Dubois

The famous Ukrainian heavyweight boxer Oleksandr Usyk, world champion according to the World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Organization (WBO), has signed a contract to fight Briton Daniel Dubois. The match will take place on August 26 in Wroclaw, Poland. Recall that Usyk had a chance to fight for the title of absolute world champion – against the owner of the belt of the World Boxing Council (WBC) and another Briton Tyson Fury. But the parties could not reach an agreement. Against the backdrop of a potential fight against Fury, the meeting with Dubois looks rather pale.

The famous Ukrainian boxer, holder of the WBA, IBF and WBO belts Oleksandr Usyk will fight his next fight on August 26 in Wroclaw, Poland. Usyk will face British fighter Daniel Dubois. Usyk himself announced this in his Instagram account (owned by Meta, a recognized extremist organization and banned in Russia).

Note that the representatives of the boxers had the opportunity to agree on holding the match until May 2. They didn’t use it. Then the fight, in which the WBO, IBF and IBO titles are at stake, by agreement of the respective federations, was put up for auction. The starting price for the right to hold it was $1 million. Usyk’s representatives submitted an application for $8 million. Dubois received a more modest offer – $5.6 million. Usyk’s team bid predictably won. Under the terms of the agreement, the Ukrainian fighter will receive 75% of the prize fund.

The last time Oleksandr Usyk entered the ring was back in August 2022. Then in Saudi Jeddah he spent successful rematch against Anthony Joshua. It was from him in September 2021 that he took away three titles at once. True, the second victory of the Ukrainian was achieved by a separate decision of the judges and, unlike the first, raised many questions about the justification for its award.

Be that as it may, after confirming the right to own three championship belts, Usyk was expected to take steps towards the fight for the title of absolute world champion. To do this, one would have to beat Tyson Fury, who owns the WBC belt, and also the reputation of the best and extremely bright heavyweight of the century.

Representatives of the fighters even entered into negotiations, during which information leaked to the press that in the megamatch (heavyweights have not had absolute world champions since the beginning of the century, since the time of Lennox Lewis), the boxers will share the prize fund, significantly exceeding $ 100 million.

However, in March 2023, negotiations to host the match were terminated. The parties have not been able to agree on terms. Oleksandr Usyk’s manager Oleksandr Krasyuk then made it clear that the main reason for canceling the fight was not even the income distribution scheme (Usyk allegedly agreed that he would receive only 30% of the prize fund), but that his ward “had a feeling that that after Usyk agreed to 30% of the prize fund, Fury thought that he could sit on his neck and demand everything he wanted. Krasyuk did not detail these “wishes”, explaining only that their enumeration would take a long time and they were in any case “unacceptable and full of disrespect for the world champion in several versions and the former absolute world champion” (Alexander Usik won such a title before the transition at the end of the last decade in the heavyweight category in the first heavyweight, up to 90.7 kg).

As a result, the Ukrainian champion will be forced to be content with a meeting with a relatively modest, at least from a commercial point of view, opponent. After all, Dubois has not yet had really big fights and the general public has become known precisely in the context of references as a potential contender for a meeting with Usyk.

Dubois holds the title of “regular” WBA champion (the second most important in the association), but this hardly adds much to his commercial appeal.

Especially considering that there were no big fights in his record yet: he lost by knockout to his only elite rival, compatriot Joe Joyce, in 2020. Yes, and the title of regular WBA champion Dubois got in an interesting style. In December 2022, he fought against South African Kevin Lerena and was knocked down three times in the first round, then, however, he himself knocked out the opponent.

Alexander Petrov