Oleksandr Usyk-Daniel Dubois II: Stats and Stakes
Can Usyk remove any remaining doubt after belt line controversy?
The biggest fight of the week, live from Wembley Stadium, will pit the sport’s greatest road warrior champion against the one man some think had him beat when they first squared off two years ago.
A lot has happened since Daniel Dubois landed a low blow (or was it?) in round five of their first encounter in August 2023. That night, Usyk otherwise dominated the action and stopped Dubois with a jab in round nine.
Combined with Dubois’ previous stoppage loss to Joe Joyce, there were some who thought he’d flown as close to the sun as he was ever going to. Instead, he was just getting started.
Dubois began the best run of his career after the Usyk loss, battering and stopping an undefeated Jarrell Miller, cutting and stopping an undefeated Filip Hrgovic (for an interim and later elevated IBF belt), and finally decimating Anthony Joshua with a four-knockdown performance in front of a hot Wembley crowd to elevate his career to its highest peak.
Usyk has been busy as well. Since the Dubois fight, he twice bested undefeated Tyson Fury to win and then defend history’s heavyweight crown. Usyk made his case as arguably the best big man since Lennox Lewis and, at 38, can only add to an already Hall of Fame career. Usyk was briefly ‘undisputed’ for those with only the most pedantic view of the concept and remains, without dispute, the one, and only, true heavyweight champion of the world. Like Muhammad Ali against Ernie Terrell, Usyk can regain a belt on Saturday (DAZN, 12:30 PM EST) he didn’t lose in the ring.
Or Usyk can lose it all to a man ten years his junior with an edge in size, power, and whose experience has only grown since the first time they met.
Can the challenger land the shot he needs where everyone can agree it’s legal this time around?
Let’s get into it.
Stats and Stakes
Oleksandr Usyk
Age: 38
Titles: Lineal/WBC World Heavyweight (2024-Present, 1 Defense); WBA/WBO heavyweight (2021-Present, 4 Defenses); TBRB/Ring Heavyweight (2022-Present, 3 Defenses)
Previous Titles: WBO Cruiserweight (2016-19, 6 Defenses); WBC Cruiserweight (2018-19, 2 Defenses); Lineal/TBRB/Ring/WBA/IBF Cruiserweight (2018-19, 1 Defense); IBF Heavyweight (2021-24, 3 Defenses)
Height: 6’3
Weight: 227 ¼ lbs.
Stance: Southpaw
Hails from: Shypyntsi, Ukraine
Record: 23-0, 14 KO (29-0, 16 KO including World Series of Boxing fights)
Record in Title Fights: 12-0, 4 KO
Last Five Opponents: 135-5 (.964)
Notable Outcomes, TBRB and/or Ring Rated Foes: Krzysztof Glowacki UD12; Marco Huck TKO10; Mairis Briedis MD12; Murat Gassiev UD12; Anthony Joshua UD12, SD12; Tyson Fury SD12, UD12
Additional Current/Former Titlists Faced: Tony Bellew TKO8; Daniel Dubois KO9
Vs.
Daniel Dubois
Age: 27
Titles: IBF Heavyweight (2024-Present, 1 Defense)
Previous Titles: None
Height: 6’5
Weight: 243 ½ lbs.
Stance: Orthodox
Hails from: Greenwich, London, United Kingdom
Record: 22-2, 21 KO, 2 KOBY
Press Rankings: #1 (TBRB), #2 (Ring, BoxRec), #3 (ESPN)
Record in Major Title Fights: 1-1, 1 KO, 1 KOBY (2-1, 2 KO, 1 KOBY including interim title fights)
Last Five Opponents: 119-4-1 (.964)
Notable Outcomes, TBRB and/or Ring Rated Foes: Oleksandr Usyk KO by 9; Filip Hrgovic TKO8; Anthony Joshua KO5
Additional Current/Former Titlists Faced: None
The Pick
The first fight controversy is a reminder anything can happen in boxing.
Had the referee ruled a clean blow, and it was the sort of shot where either call could be defended, could Usyk have survived? Continued?
We’ll never know.
What we do know is the fight was largely non-competitive the rest of the time. Usyk wasn’t just better. It was the sort of fight where one could see Usyk had forgotten more about boxing than Dubois had learned to then. There are a lot of Usyk fights like that.
Usyk isn’t facing the same guy this time. Dubois picked up nine rounds of experience in losing to Usyk and shown tremendous growth since. He doesn’t have to catch up to Usyk’s boxing IQ to beat him. He just has to be better enough to do the job.
It says here he probably won’t pull it off.
Another fighter might have issues with the massive home court advantage for Dubois but for Usyk this is old hat. He has beaten so many top names at cruiserweight and heavyweight (Glowacki, Hunter, Huck, Briedis, Gassiev, Bellew, and Joshua the first time ) on their turf without ever shrinking from the moment.
Even against Joshua, Dubois’ still carried an air of vulnerability. Mentally, his breaking points likely still remain and unless he lands something devastating his game still isn’t rounded enough to get around the skills of Usyk. It’s too hard to pick against even an aging Usyk with a guy who didn’t really win more than a few moments of their first encounter.
The pick is for the champion to retain with another stoppage.
Rold Picks 2025: 15-12