'Young Lion' Daniel Dubois Faces Unbeaten Oleksandr Usyk In Heavyweight Title Showdown At Wembley
"I'm just on a different level now," the 27-year-old Dubois said Thursday. "I'm ready to go through whatever I need to on Saturday and get those belts."
An expected crowd of 90,000 will be on hand when Usyk (23-0, 14 KOs) puts his WBA, WBC and WBO titles on the line. He'll try to win Dubois' IBF belt to become a two-time undisputed world heavyweight champion.
Lennox Lewis was the last British heavyweight to hold every major belt - accomplishing the feat in November 1999.
Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) was outmatched by Usyk in their first fight, unable to defend the Ukrainian southpaw's jab and failing to land many power punches that night in Wroclaw, Poland in August 2023. Dubois sent Usyk to the canvas in the fifth round but his punch was ruled a low blow. A straight right ended Dubois' evening in the ninth.
The last fighter to beat Usyk was Russia's Egor Mekhontsev in September 2009 at the amateur world championships.
On Friday, Dubois weighed-in at 243 and half lb, just over 10 lb heavier than the first time they fought.
"I'm locked in. I'm focused. I can't wait," said Dubois, who is 5 lb lighter than his last fight.
Usyk is at the heaviest of his career at 227 and one fourth pounds - up from 226 lb against Tyson Fury last December. Friday's weight was just over 6 lb heavier than the first time he fought Dubois.
"For me, it's a great opportunity for my people and my country," the Ukrainian said Friday.
Usyk's past six fights have been against British opponents - all victories: the last two against Tyson Fury; the Dubois stoppage; consecutive wins over Anthony Joshua; and before that Zimbabwe-born British boxer Derek Chisora.
Only one of his fights as a heavyweight involved a non-British opponent - that was in his debut in the division in October 2019 against Chazz Witherspoon of the United States.
Usyk won an Olympic gold medal at the 2012 London Games. Four years prior in Liverpool, he was crowned amateur European champion in the light heavyweight category.
In his last fight at the cruiserweight level, Usyk knocked out Liverpool's Tony Bellew in Manchester. He beat Chisora at Wembley Arena in 2020.
Joseph Parker said he would approach Usyk the way Chisora did five years ago, by putting pressure on the Ukrainian and using more combinations.
"I feel like this fight depends on how Dubois shows up," Parker said after Thursday's press conference. "In the last three fights we've seen (him) a lot more confident within himself and what he's been able to do in the ring."
Dubois was scheduled to make a title defense against Parker in February but he backed out at the last minute citing an illness.
Dubois is still heavily influenced by his father, Stanley, who also goes by Dave and guides his son's career. His dad believed in home-schooling his children, including Caroline Dubois, herself a world champion boxer. Caroline Dubois ventured away from her father's management almost two years ago, telling The Associated Press in January that she would have been "in a really bad mental place" had she not left.
Riz Khan, Daniel Dubois' manager, praised the father.
"The architect behind the resurgence has clearly been his father, Stan Dubois, who has meticulously hand-picked every single individual, whether it's the coaching team, whether it's the medics, whether it's from a management point of view, so we have all the credentials to support Daniel in the background," Khan said.
Dubois' attempts at trash talking seem more like checking a box rather than natural bravado, like when he cracked a smile after yelling " And the new! " in Usyk's face this week. Earlier, there was also a slow-motion shove of Usyk that lacked conviction.
Still, he's the same dude he was in the buildup to the Joshua fight, and that was a spectacular success for Dubois.
"I'm a young lion and I've just got to take over and be the man - execute," he said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
Who are India's next generation of Badminton stars?
Lakshya Sen was twice in a position to grab a medal in badminton at the Paris 2024 Olympics. In the semi-final, he lost to Viktor Axelsen after seeming in control of the match early on. A win would have taken him to the final and a guaranteed medal. In the match for a bronze, Sen led his opponent by a game before losing the next two. Those defeats summed up 2024 for Indian badminton, as a year in which the country's premier badminton players appeared to have lost their lustre. There were no singles titles for any player—Sen has won only one title since the Olympics, the Syed Modi India International in December, and hasn't made it past any quarter-finals this year. 'He would have won more, but the competitive environment is not set for him. He is brilliant, but it's not his fault (for not winning more)," says Parupalli Kashyap, a former world No.6 who has now pivoted to coaching. 'His work ethic and attitude are great. He has pulled off some amazing matches in the past. But if you see now, his performances have dropped considerably." Sen follows a generation of badminton players who, under the tutelage of Pullela Gopi Chand achieved considerable success, turning India into a badminton powerhouse. In 2022, Indian men won the Thomas Cup team event for the first time in its 70-odd-year history, showcasing an all-round strength and depth. Saina Nehwal won an Olympic bronze medal in 2012 London, P. V. Sindhu got two, a silver in 2016 Rio de Janeiro and a bronze in 2020 (held in 2021) Tokyo, ranking as high as No.2. Kidambi Srikanth was once world No.1, a silver medallist in the 2021 World Championships while H.S. Prannoy, once world No.6, finished third in the 2023 World Championships. But that was in the past. After a long gap now, no Indian player—male or female—features in the top 10 rankings. Sen, at No.17, is the highest while Sindhu, 30, is at No.15, having slid out of the top 10 in October last year. Srikanth, 32, and Prannoy, 33, are in the 30s in ranking as well. All of them are dealing with issues of fitness, motivation and consistency as the rigour of the sport takes a toll. Indian badminton seems to be undergoing a transition, from a generation of players who were consistently in the top 10, won a host of titles and catalysed the sport to waiting for the next lot to make a mark. With the World Championships starting 25 August, coincidentally in Paris, the venue for last year's Olympics, the sport is looking at new beginnings. 'At this point of my career, each and every win matters," Prannoy told the Badminton World Federation (BWF) website after a first-round win in the China Open this month. 'The level of men's singles has gone really high, so winning each round is getting tougher. The average age in men's singles has become 22-23 all of a sudden; a lot of fresh faces, we don't know what their game is. So it's tough to be a veteran of this," added Prannoy, who has lost in the first or second round of all his 11 tournaments this year. Looking Ahead Ayush Shetty, 20, won the US Open, a BWF Super 300 category event, in June and is currently the second highest ranked Indian male. Earlier this week, Unnati Hooda, 17, beat Sindhu in the China Open. Vennala Kalagotla, 17, and Tanvi Sharma, 16, finished third in the Asian Junior Championships last Sunday in Indonesia. Malvika Bansod, 23, won a title at the Azerbaijan International last year, finished third at the US Open, and was runner-up at the Hylo Open in Germany. Anupama Upadhyaya, now 20, was a few years ago the world's top-ranked junior. These are just a few names of upcoming players, but it's also early days for them, competing in a bruising, physically taxing sport in which a Prannoy, 33, is considered a veteran. 'We are nimble-footed and have supple wrists, but this sport is tough for Indian bodies where few like Sindhu have lasted largely injury free," adds Kashyap. While there has been a substantial increase in the number of children taking to the sport over the last decades, along with the spread of infrastructure and support from parents, badminton remains an expensive sport and opportunities to succeed at the elite level is limited. Some of these challenges even prompted the national coach Gopi Chand to recently say that the sport should be pursued only by the wealthy, because it does not offer job security or a guaranteed success. In Guntur, where Vennala grew up, her father Kalagotla Srinivasa Reddy was keen that she pick up a sport. The choice was between tennis and badminton, but when Reddy went to the tennis courts, he got intimidated by the fancy cars parked outside. Badminton became an easier option, which the child soon fell in love with. 'My father was a ball badminton player with ambitions of participating in the Olympics," Vennala says, back home from Solo, Indonesia. 'But since ball badminton is not part of the Olympics, he could not, but was keen that my brother and I follow that Olympic dream." The bronze medal, which has got her a direct entry into the BWF World Junior Championships in October, is a reward for all the 'sacrifices, early morning sessions," she says, bringing in the motivation to do better. 'It's the start of something bigger," she says over the phone. Passing the Baton Kashyap believes that the sport is not being organised in a way to optimise results, with 'too many heads working for a cause that does not make sense". Top players train at different centres, often lacking in adequate sparring partners, which would help in raising their standards. There is no second string of players getting funded consistently, he adds, despite efforts of not-for profit agencies like Olympic Gold Quest, GoSports and Reliance Foundation, which supports Vennala, among others. The lockdown in 2020, 2021, also made a debilitating difference to continuity, according to Nikhil Kanetkar, who runs an eponymous coaching centre in Pune. 'Every day of training matters. Not being able to play for a year and more was difficult. It put us back. Maybe in other countries, they were holed up in their (training) centres. That perhaps gave them an advantage." 'For me as a coach, for example, I had to start from zero. We lost a generation of players," adds Kanetkar, who was Gopi Chand's contemporary as a player in the late 1990s and 2000s. He says that players like Nehwal, Srikanth and Sindhu raised the sport to such a high standard in the country that it's difficult to maintain that level seamlessly. 'We should have had a backup (of players) to them, four-five years ago maybe." According to him, players do not have the patience to stay in one coaching centre for longer, which affects their growth. 'One national centre, like in Guwahati (National Centre of Excellence), would probably make sense, but all top players have to be there together. The system has to gear to that, get the best coaches, how China does it," Kanetkar adds. Badminton in India is at a crossroad, but everyone agrees that with the depth of talent available, the transition will happen, even if it takes a little longer. 'What I learnt is to be happy, but to never get satisfied," says Vannala. Arun Janardhan is a Mumbai-based journalist who covers sports, business leaders and lifestyle. He posts @iArunJ.
Hindustan Times
3 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Wallabies' Tizzano absent from third Lions Test after online abuse
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt says he left flanker Carlo Tizzano out of his squad for the third British and Irish Lions Test over concern for his neck and after a week of online abuse. Wallabies' Tizzano absent from third Lions Test after online abuse Tizzano was swept up by controversy in the final minutes of the second Test in Melbourne when he was cleaned out of the last ruck of the game with a hit to the neck by the Lions' Jac Morgan. The Welshman's actions went unpunished by the officials, to Australia's fury, and Hugo Keenan's resulting 79th minute match-winning try was allowed to stand. In the aftermath, Tizzano was accused of "diving" to try and win a penalty when he sprung backwards and fell to the ground in dramatic fashion. Former Lions skipper Sam Warburton said the Australian "made a real meal of it". "He's had a really tough week, Carlo. He's copped a lot of online abuse," Schmidt told reporters late Thursday. "I've advised Carlo to stay away from the media full stop, and the opinions that are out there." When asked about the issue, Lions coach Andy Farrell said: "Online abuse, it's clear and obvious, it's disgusting. It shouldn't be that way." Schmidt defended the way Tizzano came out of the ruck, saying it was a matter of physics. "There were just over 54 Gs of force that went directly through the neck ... which is enough to cause serious injury, although not to a rugby player who is as well conditioned as Carlo. "But he's probably best just left to take a deep breath. "We are all aware of Newton's third law for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction," Schmidt added. "When that force hits him and the speed of his head collapsing down, he recoiled out the back of the ruck. "I don't think he wanted to recoil like that but that's the nature of force. That there is an equal and opposite reaction." World Rugby this week defended the officials' decision-making during the Test and took issue with Schmidt questioning the governing body's commitment to player safety. The third and final Test is in Sydney on Saturday, with the Lions gunning for a whitewash after winning the first two. mp/tym This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Hindustan Times
4 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Yuzvendra Chahal breaks silence on divorce with Dhanashree, 'cheating' allegations: 'I had suicidal thoughts'
Senior India cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal, on Thursday, broke his silence on his divorce from Dhanashree Verma. He opened up about what went wrong in their five-year marriage and spoke about his mental health struggles after facing cheating allegations amid divorce rumours earlier this year. Yuzvendra Chahal and Dhanashree Verma got divorced earlier this year, in May(dhanashree9/Instagram) Chahal and Dhanashree married in 2020, but cracks in the relationship began to show by the third year of marriage. Speaking to Raj Shamani on his YouTube channel, the 35-year-old revealed that the two had chosen to keep their separation process private until it was finalised. "It was going on for a long while. We decided we do not want to show the people. Who knew if it did not happen? Maybe it will become a different scenario. We were like until we reached a point of no return, we are not going to say anything. We will be like a normal couple on social media," said Chahal. When pressed about whether he was faking it at that time, Chahal nodded his head, implying, 'Yes.' The Indian leg-spinner explained that both he and Dhanashree were deeply focused on their respective careers, making it difficult to prioritise the relationship, and hence, with time, the emotional disconnect grew. He added that relationships require compromise, but sometimes two people's personalities or ambitions may not align. "A relationship is like a compromise. If one gets angry, the other has to listen. Sometimes the nature of two people does not match. I was playing for India, she was also doing her. This was going on for 1-2 years. "At that point, I was so much into it, I had to give time here, give time there. I was not able to think about the relationship. Then it happens every day, you think, leave it. Two ambitious people can stay together. Everyone has their own lives. Everyone has their own goals. As a partner, you have to support it. You are working for something for 18-20 years, you cannot leave it for a relationship," Chahal added. Chahal also opened up about being called a "cheater" during the divorce proceedings earlier this year. "I think when my divorce happened, people alleged me of being a cheater. I have never cheated in my life. I am not that kind of a person. You won't find anyone more loyal than me. I think from my heart for my closed ones, always. I do not demand, I always give. When people don't know anything, but they keep blaming me, so you start thinking [otherwise]," the India bowler said. "Because I have two sisters and have grown up with them since childhood, I know how to respect women, because my parents have taught me how to respect them. I've learnt my life lessons from people around me. It is not necessary that if my name is being linked to someone, people get to write anything about it, only for views," the Haryana-born commented. 'Suicidal thoughts' Chahal admitted that facing public scrutiny and his personal struggles at the same time took a serious toll on his mental health. He revealed that he went through sleepless nights, slipped into depression, and even had suicidal thoughts. "I had suicidal thoughts, I was tired of my life, I used to cry for 2 hours. I used to sleep just for 2 hours. It went for 40-45 days. I wanted a break from cricket. I was so busy in cricket. I was not able to concentrate. I used to sleep for 2 hours. Used to share suicidal thoughts with my friend. I used to get scared," he said.
