The stalemate in the heavyweight division has kept most of the marquee names out of big fights this year, but Oleksandr Usyk against Daniel Dubois will finally be 2023’s first world title matchup when the pair meet on August 26.
The fight will be a debut pay-per-view event under the brand TNT Sports, which is the new name for BT Sport, and is due to go live on July 18 in the UK. The price point for the box office card is yet to be revealed.
Now it is real!!! #usykdubois@usykaa@DynamiteDubois on TNT Sports Box Office in UK pic.twitter.com/tOqjPAgedi
— alex.krassyuk (@AKrassyuk) July 6, 2023
Brit ‘Dynamite’ Daniel Dubois is the mandatory challenger to Usyk’s WBA belt, while the Ukrainian will also be defending his WBO and IBF belts for the second time.
The fight is set to take place at Stadion Wroclaw (Tarczynski Arena Wroclaw) in Wroclaw, Poland, and was pushed back two weeks in order to be closer to Ukrainian Independence Day which is August 24.
As Dubois is the ‘Regular’ WBA title holder, the winner of this fight will become the sole WBA champion and the Regular belt will forever be consigned to history as the organisation moves to reduce the number of titles it oversees. His last fight was a knockout of Kevin Lerena, despite himself being down three times in round one.
Usyk’s promotional team K2 won the purse bid and the split of 75-25 to the champion means he will earn $6,042,750 while Dubois, as the secondary titlist fighting for a superior belt, will get a career-high payday of $2,014,250.
Usyk, who is coming off back-to-back wins against Anthony Joshua, has also reportedly signed his contract for a much-anticipated unification fight with Tyson Fury through his new co-promotional agreement with Skill Challenge Promotions.
That of course depends on how the action with Dubois unfolds.