
Oleksandr Usyk warns Daniel Dubois his boxing IQ is too much for him ahead of undisputed title fight at Wembley
BRAIN POWER Oleksandr Usyk warns Daniel Dubois his boxing IQ is too much for him ahead of undisputed title fight at Wembley
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OLEKSANDR USYK has warned Daniel Dubois that his boxing brain is one nut Britain's best and biggest cannot crack.
Derek Chisora gave the 38-year-old Ukraine icon five torrid 2020 rounds before being outpointed.
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Oleksandr Usyk warned Daniel Dubois his boxing IQ is too much for him
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Usyk and Dubois are set for a massive rematch on Saturday at Wembley
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Usyk won the first match by knocking Dubois out in 2023
Anthony Joshua tried to outbox the fox and was handed back-to-back defeats in 2020 and 2021
And 6ft, 9in Tyson Fury tried to abuse and bully the former cruiserweight king and was also handed consecutive 2024 losses.
Respectful and reserved Dubois gave it a decent whack in 2023 but he surrendered in the ninth after running out of ideas and energy.
But now the rematch is back at Wembley - for all four world titles and undisputed legacy - and Dubois looks like the last Englishman tasked with trying to best the greatest IQ in modern boxing.
Chisora told SunSport that Usyk is having his supreme engine and southpaw skills boosted by the ongoing invasion of his beloved country. And he agreed.
'What Chisora said is true.' Usyk told us. "You can't crack my head.
'Everyone wants to talk about their punches or their power. I just wait for my time. I just wait for the bell to go DING and the referee to say: 'box'."
Usyk's training regime defies sports science; he swims for hours, ships in the best giants sparring partners from all around the world and throws in mind games and magic tricks - the man can really dance too.
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But it's his brain that has helped him keep ice cool against verbal and physical provocation from some of the most dangerous men on the planet, while he counters with a gap-toothed grin and a boxing masterclass.
'The brain and the body are the same,' he explained. 'If you have the brain but no fitness, it's bad.
In camp with Daniel Dubois ahead of Oleksandr Usyk bout
'But if you have the best conditioning but a weak brain, it's also bad.
'When you do conditioning training, it has to hurt, you have to come through that and that's mental.'
One other weapon in Usyk's artillery is the inspiration he takes from his father.
Oleksandr Sr died days after his son's 2012 Olympic win, before his boy could get the medal back to him.
Instead the gold went into his coffin and, in the following years, pre-fight dreams would be the only time he saw his father.
Now his mum Nadiya guides the ship and she had strict instructions for her lad, after the family jewels took an almighty whack in the first fight.
Usyk explained: "My mum always says 'Alex, please be careful of the punches'.
'She told me to have a big groin protector.'

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We're doing the operational delivery of a major event within an eight mile footprint rather than a 40, 50, 60, 70 mile footprint. That design change makes this event much more flexible, much more responsive to the city's infrastructure and much more financially sustainable.' Read more: Batty is unable to offer any predictions about how much the Commonwealth Games will be worth to the Scottish economy at this stage, but he does know for certain that a significant profit will be made. 'As part of Victoria's settlement, there was an opportunity for any nation in the Commonwealth to put their hands up and say they wanted to do the 2026 edition,' he said. 'Commonwealth Sport therefore invested £100m into that. 'Not using any public investment in the project means that when we're bringing sponsorship into the city and when we're bringing partner business investment into the city, that's new money coming into Glasgow. Then you'll have broadcast rights, ticket sales, merchandise and all the other commercial revenue streams on top of that. 'We haven't done the full economic impact study. But we're using 18 hotels for athlete accommodations. That's all money that we're investing directly into the hospitality sector, money that's going direct into the economy from that point of view. 'We know that we'll have around half a million tickets available for sale for people to watch the sport within the venues. So people will come out, enjoy the bars, the cultural venues, the attractions within the city. We'll have programming that will support that. We know that Glasgow owns an event in all its glory once it happens.' Batty added, 'There was around £800m worth of economic impact which came off the back of Birmingham. They did a one-year-on economic impact study and one of the things they also saw through that was how much it drove trade and investment. 'By profiling the city, by profiling the region and through the partnerships of the 72 nations back then, it drove a lot of people to invest in the city and invest the West Midlands.' Many world-famous sporting figures participated in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014 – Nicola Adams and Josh Taylor (boxing), the Brownlee brothers, Alistair and Jonny (triathlon), Geraint Thomas (road cycling), Jason Kenny, Laura Trott and Bradley Wiggins (track cycling), Greg Rutherford (long jump) David Rudisha (800m) and Usain Bolt and Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce (4x100m relay) all took part. It is far too early to say definitively who will take part next July and August, but Batty is, having liaised extensively with the 74 participating nations and territories since coming on board in January, optimistic that there will be another stellar cast in attendance given the feedback which he has received. 'There's a lot of signals that there's going to be some great athletes performing at the games,' he said. 'In terms of household names who are warming up to talk about the games, we're seeing more and more people coming out and saying how great it is to be back in Glasgow. We've had a great response and that will only build.' It is bitterly disappointing, and not a little perplexing, that sports like rugby sevens, field hockey, badminton, triathlon, squash, diving, table tennis, mountain biking and road cycling have been dropped from the Commonwealth Games schedule. Could the Glasgow National Hockey Centre not have been easily utilised? Or the Cathkin Braes Mountain Bike Trails? Weren't they purpose built for 2014? Batty outlines the logic behind athletics, para athletics, 3x3 basketball, 3x3 wheelchair basketball, boxing, gymnastics, artistic gymnastics, judo, lawn bowls, para bowls, netball, swimming, para swimming, track cycling, para track cycling, weightlifting and para powerlifting making the cut. 'We've protected those core hallmarks of the Commonwealth Games that make it special in the major events industry,' he said. 'We have been, for a number of editions now, a completely integrated sport and para-sport competition. It's not an Olympics where there's an Olympics and then there's a Paralympics later on. 'This is one of the things that makes it special and unique. Having the largest ever para-sport programme, I think shows we're continuing to invest. But it is the same with the sporting competition. There was a lot of care and love put into that 10 competition sport programme. It was designed so that all 74 nations could and would take part. 'When we've looked at inclusion, we've looked at para-inclusion, but we've also taken a really strong look at the gender parity in the medal table to make sure we've got a gender-balanced programme. 'You know, some nations send eight athletes to the Commonwealth Games and they've always sent eight athletes to the Commonwealth Games. We needed to make sure that even if you are the smallest of nations with the smallest of teams, you still stand a chance of winning a medal. I feel really proud that the 10 sports and six para sports that we've got reflect the Commonwealth.' Phil Batty OBE knows that much remains to be done during the coming 12 months and understands that significant obstacles still need to be overcome, but he is both confident and determined that Glasgow will have a Commonwealth Games to be proud of in 2026.