Daniel Dubois warned Oleksandr Usyk that none of the mind games will matter when they step into the ring for theirheavyweight title unification contestand suggested the Ukrainian would simply not be able to “handle the pain” when they meet at Wembley Stadium on 19 July.
On Tuesday afternoon, Dubois and Usyk presented a compelling study in contrast at Wembley as, in separate conversations to officially launch the fight, the two men echoed the differences between them which had already been made plain 24 hours earlier.
During a face-off on the pitch on Monday afternoon, the normally mild-mannered Dubois had shoved Usyk who responded, after his initial surprise, by bursting into laughter. Dubois, the IBF champion, shook his head when asked if his actions had been premeditated. “No, it was just one of them things,” Dubois said. “If you get angry or something, it just happens in boxing. I want to put my hands on him properly on the 19th [of July] and show everyone.”
Dubois admitted that, when Usyk laughed, “I didn’t expect that from him. But you know the Ukrainians – they do all this mind work and mind control stuff. But I just need to be right, physically and spiritually, and that will be enough on the night.”
Usyk’s mental strength is such that even Dubois conceded that he won’t be able to find a chink in the psychological armour of the WBA, WBC and WBO champion. “No,” he conceded, “but he’s always into psychological warfare. I think he’s a boring guy. He’s just at home with his mind shit. It’s all psychological but when those guys feel the real pain and the heat, then you can break through that.
“If you’ve got power on your side, you can do anything. I don’t think he can handle the pain or the heat that I’m going to bring. I’m going to just step up and win.”
When Duboischallenged Usyk for his world titlesin August 2023 he struggled initially to match the ringcraft of the Ukrainian master. But the fight changed course dramatically when, in the fifth round, Dubois landed a withering punch on the beltline which was ruled a low blow. Usyk went down in considerable distress as he slumped to the canvas. He was given almost four minutes to recover by the referee who, despite considering it an illegal blow, did not deduct a point from Dubois.
Usyk was canny enough to weather the turbulent storm which followed and he eventually re-established his authority and dropped Dubois twice before the fight was stopped in the ninth round.
“Yeah, I got through with that shot,” Dubois said as he remembered the impact of that borderline blow before Usyk found a way to beat him. “It was like a punch from the gods, though. But that’s in the past now. That’s gone. I’m a man of the future.”
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When told about that “punch from the gods” comment, Usyk paused for a long time before, in his typically languid way, he said: “God bless Daniel. God bless you, bro.” He then leant forward with real intent, as if passing on an indirect but ominous message to Dubois: “He shouldn’t have said it.”
Usyk sounded more philosophical when hearing that Frank Warren, who promotes Dubois, had insisted that the Ukrainian has a fatal weakness. “This fellow, I’m telling you, does not like it when he’s hit to the body,” Warren said of Usyk. “I’ve studied him and I know him better than his trainers do. I’ve watched his fights, going back to his amateur days, and he doesn’t like it to the body at all.” Warren predicted that Dubois would break him down with a remorseless body attack and win by knockout in July.
Such talk tickled Usyk. He rocked back in his chair, grinned, and produced a suitably cryptic response: “I do have a weakness but no one will ever know about this weakness apart from me. I will never talk about it because this weakness is hidden in an egg and the egg is hidden in a dog and the dog is hidden in a safe which is hidden in a dragon. So it’s impossible to find.”
Usyk cackled with laughter as the contrast between him and Dubois was made even more obvious. The battle between two such opposites has only just begun.