WBC HEAVYWEIGHT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP – Oleksandr Usyk vs Daniel ‘Dynamite’ Dubois II
July 19, 2025 / London, England, United Kingdom / Wembley Stadium
QUEENSBERRY PROMOTIONS PRESENTS:
OLEKSANDR USYK (Ukraine)
· WBC Heavyweight world champion, 2nd defense
· WBA Super, WBO Heavyweight World Champion, 5th defense
· Former WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO Cruiserweight World Champion, 6 defenses
Age: 38 / Date of birth: January 17, 1987
Residence: Kyiv, Ukraine / Birthplace: Simferopol, Crimea
Record: 23-0, 14 KOs / Total rounds: 201 / World championship fights: 12-0, 4 KOs
Height: 6’3” – 191cm / Reach: 78” – 198cm / Stance: Left-handed
Manager: Egis Klimas / Trainer: Yuriy Tkachenko
DANIEL “Dynamite” DUBOIS (United Kingdom)
· IBF Heavyweight World Champion, 1st defense
· Former WBC Silver Heavyweight Champion
· Former WBC Youth Heavyweight Champion
Age: 27 / Date of birth: September 6, 1997
Residence, birthplace: London, England, United Kingdom
Record: 22-2, 21 KOs / Total rounds: 95 / World championship fights: 3-1, 3 KOs
Height: 6’5” – 196cm / Reach: 78” – 198cm / Stance: Right-handed
Manager: Martin Bowers / Trainer: Don Charles
All four Belts are there for the taking on July 19th when Oleksandr Usyk who is the WBC, WBA and WBO Heavyweight Champion, strolls into Wembley Stadium to take on IBF Champion Daniel ‘Triple D’ Dubois in a rematch of their 2023 encounter which the Ukrainian won via a ninth round TKO.
One can only anticipate the collective roar and the hairs standing up on the back of the neck, when the two of them are introduced to a crowd of one hundred thousand at the Stadium of The Three Lions. Most of The Pride will be willing, welling, coaxing and pleading for Daniel to achieve an historic victory…something which no other opponent of ‘The Cat’, has come close to springing.
Cool cats aren’t possessed by us mere mortals. There’s no ownership clause, as they choose their ‘Purrfect’ surroundings and comfort zones. To them home is where the heart is, so Daniel won’t necessarily enjoy turf advantage. Well-funded, a considerable kitty is available.
In their first encounter in the Wroclaw Stadium, Poland on Ukraine’s Independence Day, Oleksandr was the teacher and Daniel absorbed a lot of punishment as the pupil, from the Ruler and via the Slide Rule. It was his second defeat and he got caught with a cascade of jarring, jolting southpaw jabs, which set him up for the heavy artillery, which was then to inevitably follow. As early as round two his left eye was swelling from the precise drilling and he was constantly trying to catch up in a catch me if you can contest.
Daniel was aiming for the body in an attempt to slow up Oleksandr. In the fifth a right which was thrown in an upward arc, appeared to land a trifle low, according to Referee Luis Pabon. Oleksandr went down in evident acute discomfort, gasping and wincing. He was allowed up to five minutes to recover. Eventually he took three minutes and forty- five seconds. From then on, after he had got up from his haunches, it was increasingly one-way traffic.
A combination flurry put Daniel down in the eighth, he got up and the bell rang. Only a brief respite. In round nine, a jarring straight jab put tiring Daniel down again and this time he was unable to beat the count. It was over at the forty-eight second mark. Oleksandr had landed eighty-eight of three hundred and fifty- nine punches thrown, while Daniel had landed only forty-seven of two hundred and ninety punches he threw. It proves just how hard it is to land blows on elusive Oleksandr.
Even prior to this Daniel had suffered a setback, and had been left with a real scare. The first happened against Joe Joyce. As early as round two Joe’s jabs had found and swelled Daniel’s left eye. He soldiered on, but by the tenth when a peach of a jab landed agonizingly on Daniel’s by now tightly closed eye, he took a knee and waited until he was counted out. He’s suffered a fractured left orbital bone and nerve damage.
Some diehard armchair warriors, insist that he should have rockily continued to soak it up and not have called it a day. With a cut, a cracked rib or a broken nose, this might be possible, but with an injury of this severity, it could end a career and permanently blind him. Danial had no option but to stop and live to fight another day. Once the swelling had gone down, the injury didn’t require surgery but rehab, which kept him out of the ring for more than six months.
Perhaps the writing had already been on the wall before the Usyk encounter? One fight prior to it, up stepped Kevin Lerena from south Africa, who is now the WBC Bridgerweight champion and a small heavyweight, when he ventures up. Kevin gave Daniel a real jolting shock, canvassing him three times in round one, all with left hooks. Still dizzy at the beginning of round two, Daniel recovered to clobber Kevin with a huge overhead right to the head, and after he somehow got up, Daniel followed on with uppercuts to drop him again. Referee Howard Foster wisely stopped it. Alas, Daniel had injured an anterior cruciate ligament which required surgery, delaying the first Usyk bout.
After being stopped by Oleksandr, Daniel who had almost reached the summit, but then fallen off and down to base camp, had to climb the mountain all over again in order to redeem himself. He TKO’d Jarrell Miller in ten rounds. Then he stopped Filip Hrgovic, with the IBF Interim Title at stake, cutting him over both eyes and the Ring Doctor recommended to Referee John Latham to stop it after fifty- seven seconds of round eight.
Then against Anthony Joshua for the Absolute IBF belt. Daniel confounded the bookies’ odds, to drop AJ in rounds one, three, four and five. A booming counter right ended it with AJ not being able to beat the count. Daniel has redeemed himself and is an appreciably better plus wiser fighter, but is this enough and is he capable of defeating Oleksandr, who has proved himself supreme, nimble and able, with no trips or stumbles.
All of these thrills and spills for Daniel who is still only twenty-seven, while Oleksandr is aged thirty-eight and The Pride of Ukraine, whose body is his temple, trains to perfection in every aspect and appears younger than his years, in spite of coming through two epoch-epics with Tyson Fury, both of which he has won brilliantly.
A portrait artist of the Noble Art, Oleksandr uses his box/palate to render brush strokes to plaster. Religious and devout, Oleksandr who crosses himself at the beginning and end of every round, succeeds in everything he turns his hand to. Having won Olympic Gold, he is one of only two fighters who is undisputed in the two weight categories during the modern era, namely cruiser and heavy, and he remains undefeated.
Boxers and experts are wowed and awed by his brilliant footwork, hand-speed, spartan unremitting work rate, range finding judgement of distance, sound adept defence, his attacking mode and his uncanny ring- generalship. He almost stopped Tyson Fury first time around in a torrid round nine. But his second UD victory was overall, even more convincing. He leans, learns, stores up the experience in his memory banks and then accordingly adopts plus adapts strategy.
Prior to fighting Daniel, Oleksandr had twice comprehensively defeated Anthony Joshua for the WBA, WBO and IBF belts coming very close to stopping him in the final round of their first fight, when the bell appeared to ring five seconds early, as AJ was teetering on the ropes, under the cosh.
As well as his boxing, Oleksandr is a talented soccer player, a martial artist at Jiu-Jitsu, Sambo and judo, an accomplished long- distance swimmer and to unwind he stretches it to yoga. Years don’t equal vitamins, but as of now, he is still very much A Plus tip top.
Who wins this rematch, will have gleaned and learned the most from the first absorbing encounter, to apply with aplomb. It is also very much involves who has been the most single minded and stringently dedicated, in their rigidly disciplined preparation, leading up to the clang of the opening bell.
Oleksandr has memorably stated: “If you want to be great in what you’re doing, you really need to limit yourself. So, consider my life as the life of a monk.”
Accordingly, and from John Donne’s sermon: “Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee!”
