‘I’ll shock the world’ – Daniel Dubois confident he is the man to wrench heavyweight titles off Oleksandar Usyk
BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk
Daniel Dubois is promising to “shock the world” if he faces unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.
Ukrainian Usyk holds the WBA, IBF and WBO world titles and saw talks over a lucrative undisputed clash with WBC belt-holder Tyson Fury collapse last week.
Dubois holds the WBA world title with that organisation making Usyk their ‘super’ champion.
And the South Londoner’s promoter Frank Warren is claiming that Usyk has to make a mandatory defence next against the 25-year-old now that a showdown with Fury has failed to materialise or be stripped by that governing body.
“I want to shock the world and I want to knock him out,” Greenwich’s Dubois told iFL TV. “The job is still to be done. The fight has got to be fought – and won.
“I’m challenging him, I’m calling him out. I’m not like the fighters he has fought before, none of them are like me.
“I saw the [Dereck] Chisora fight and he did really well with him, probably the best anyone has done so far with him in the pros. After seeing that, I’m up for the challenge.
“I want to end Usyk’s reign and start building a legacy for myself. You have got to be crazy in there – fight like a man possessed to beat him.”
Boxing politics can mean that organisations take different routes when it comes to ordering title defences.
But Dubois (19-1, 18KOs) said: “They (Usyk’s management team) can’t get around the rules. This is professional boxing. I’ve earned my shot – give me my shot. I want to take those belts with both hands.”
Dubois won his WBA strap with an easy fourth-round knockout of Trevor Bryan in Miami in June.
He was in danger of a huge upset loss in his first defence against the unheralded Kevin Lerena, overcoming a knee injury to eventually halt him in the third round at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at the end of last year.
“I’m 100 per cent ready to go,” said Dubois. “There is no getting around me – I’m next in line.
“Coming back from injury is what is going to strengthen my character.”