It is fair to say that Daniel Dubois’s career has seen plenty of ups and downs but promoter Frank Warren is still backing him to come out on top in the biggest fight of his life against Oleksandr Usyk.
Still just 25, ‘Dynamite’ Daniel Dubois is a big puncher with a 90% knockout ratio. His only loss in 20 match-ups came against Joe Joyce back in 2020 when he took a knee, and then a 10 count, following a left jab from Joyce on an already fractured left eye socket.
Since then on the rebuild, he’s stopped Bogdan Dinu, Joe Cusumano, Trevor Bryan and most recently Kevin Lerena in December last year on the undercard of Fury-Chisora III.
Next up is likely to be a mandatory shot at unified WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk. The purse bid for the fight was won by Usyk’s promotional team, K2, and is scheduled for August 26 in Poland.
Warren has promoted Dubois since he turned pro and so is naturally backing his man should ‘Dynamite’ come to blows with the talented Ukrainian.
Speaking to Seconds Out, he explains why.
“I look at the fights [Usyk] had at heavyweight. Derek Chisora about 18 months, maybe two years ago springs to mind. For six, seven rounds Chisora gave him a lot of problems. He was there with him, there was nothing in it. They picked Chisora for a reason but look what Tyson [Fury] did with Chisora and look at that.
His two fights with [Anthony Joshua], AJ weren’t at the races, he was on the back foot all the time. For me, AJ is not the fighter he was.
I look at that, I look at [Daniel] and I just know that’s he powerful, he’s got a good jab, he’s faster than people think. If Usyk gets clipped and tastes some of that power it’s gunna be interesting to see how he reacts.
Usyk hasn’t had a performance that has been a jaw-dropping and dramatic performance. No disrespect, he’s done what he has to do, but I feel Daniel will be in the right place at the right time [to win.]”
Should Warren’s prediction come true, an undisputed unification fight between both of his fighters Dubois and Tyson Fury could be on the cards and straightforward to make.