Dubois Will Have Usyk ‘Flashbacks’ and Collapse, Says Balogun

Heavyweight Mike Balogun says IBF champion Daniel Dubois will have “flashbacks” against unified three-belt champ Oleksandr Usyk after a few “reminder rounds” and quickly collapse in their rematch on July 19th at Wembley Stadium in London.

False Confidence for Dubois

He feels that Dubois’ recent wins over Anthony Joshua, Filip Hrgovic, and Jarrell Miller have given him false confidence that won’t help him against Usyk (23-0, 14 KOs). Those flashbacks of his battle against Usyk will resurface once he’s sent to the front and faces him again.

Many fans foolishly have jumped on the Dubois bandwagon after his knockout win over AJ last September, and they naively believe he’s improved. That’s not reality. Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) is still the same fighter he was before, and will break down mentally once Usyk hits him. Those flashbacks are for life sometimes, and there’s nothing his promoters can do about it other than match him carefully the way Tyson Fury was before he retired.

“It’s kind of hard to go against Usyk when he’s already beaten guys. I feel like he’s already broke Dubois’ will to win, and I feel like that’s key in winning championship fights,” said Mike Balogun to Seconds Out, picking Oleksandr Usyk to defeat Daniel Dubois in their rematch on July 19th in London.

Usyk has already shown that he hits hard enough to hurt Dubois and make him quit. Although Oleksandr is not seen as a big puncher, he’s shown that he possesses more than enough power to knock guys out or hurt them when he wears them down. We saw that against Dubois in 2023, Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury. Dubois’ punch resistance is arguably worse than that of the two.

Daniel is more vulnerable to getting stopped because he loses confidence, crumbles mentally like a broken eggshell, and gives up the ship. He’d rather quit when the tough gets going than fight tooth and nail to go out on his shield. There’s the weakness of the mind that this is there, and always will be. Dubois surrendered on one knee to Joe Joyce in a fight he was winning.

In Dubois’ fight against former cruiserweight Kevin Lerena in December 2022, he was dropped three times in round one. However, the round ended 11 seconds early while Dubois was still being counted. This essentially saved him from being knocked out. Lerena would have had enough time to drop him a fourth time if the action had resumed. So, you have that as a loss for Dubois.

Dubois’ Mental Weakness

“When you can break a guy’s will to win to want to fight you in a way to turn the fight, I feel like he [Usyk] already did that,” said Bologun. “If he stopped him in round nine, the beginning of this fight [the rematch] would be round ten.”

Daniel has problem is that Usyk will stay in the fight long enough to get to his weak chin, tap him, discourage him, and force him to quit or knock him out. As I mentioned, it doesn’t take much to knock out Dubois. That jaw is made of glass. He’s powerful, but fragile upstairs, and that will be there in the rematch. Chins don’t get better for fighters as they age.

“Dubois had a couple of good victories, but I don’t think it changed him fighting Usyk in the outcome. Absolutely not,” said Bologun when asked if Dubois’ win over Anthony Joshua increased his confidence enough to defeat Usyk.

At 35, Joshua is nowhere near the fighter he was when he turned pro in 2013 after his controversial gold medal win in the 2012 Olympics. He was always a shaky heavyweight to begin with, but he’s now nowhere near what he was 12 years ago. Dubois’ win means nothing because he wasn’t fighting the vintage Joshua.

This version is beatable against almost any of the young sharks in the division. Dubois just happened to be the one who was fighting him. It could have been anyone else; they’d have done the same thing to AJ.

Reminder Rounds Trigger Flashbacks

“I don’t think in this case those wins without a shadow of a doubt, I believe those wins absolutely made him more confident, and to go into a fight with confidence is necessary, no matter who you’re fighting. He [Dubois] may have the confidence, but the skill [of Usyk will be a problem].

“I mean, all it takes is a couple of those reminder rounds for him to have those flashbacks, and he might concede. Like I said, it might be easier for Usyk to break him this time,” said Balogun.

Mike is right about all it’ll take is a “couple of reminder rounds” for the flashbacks to begin for Dubois against Usyk, and he’ll quit again. ‘Coming events cast their shadows before.‘ Dubois will do what he’s done before when he starts getting hit by Usyk, and his career will be on the junk heap.