IBF Heavyweight Champion Daniel Dubois prefers a rematch with unified three-belt champion Oleksandr Usyk in July at Wembley Stadium over the other options for his next fight.
Usyk (23-0, 14 KOs) is a bigger money fight for Dubois, 27, than rescheduling the fight with Joseph Parker. Daniel was supposed to fight him on February 22nd in Riyadh but pulled out with an illness.
Despite his latest resurgence, Parker isn’t popular worldwide, and a match between Dubois and him wouldn’t generate the same amount of interest as a clash against Usyk would.
Wembley Stadium Vision
“A big fight in July against Usyk. That’s what I want. The Usyk fight [at Wembley] would be like the AJ fight but way bigger, the biggest fight in the world,” said Dubois to The Ring.
It’s questionable whether a fight between Dubois and Usyk would be big enough for the promoters to book the 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium in London. That would be risky on their part because it might end up only half or a quarter-filled, and the organizers of the event would have wasted their money. If the fight happens, it would need to be staged at a smaller venue, perhaps Wembley Arena.
Chisora: A Waste of Time
The other less-than-appealing option for Dubois is to defend against his IBF mandatory Derek Chisora, who many fans feel doesn’t deserve a title shot after the easy path he got his position by beating the hapless Otto Wallin and past-his-best Joe Joyce.
Few fans want to see Dubois fight the 41-year-old Chisora because the clash would be the equivalent of paying to see a one-round slaughter.
It wouldn’t be fair to the people ordering it on PPV or purchasing tickets unless you enjoy watching quick knockouts in fights that have no business being made. The IBF would be doing fans and Dubois a huge favor if they changed their minds about Chisora being mandatory and inserted someone like Agit Kabayel in his place.
Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) wants to avenge the ninth-round knockout he suffered against Usyk two years ago on August 26, 2023, in Wroclaw, Poland. A lot of fans felt that Dubois was robbed of scoring a fifth-round knockout when he dropped Usyk with a body shot. He stayed on the canvas for an extended period, recovering from the shot, which the referee ruled as a low blow.
Last Updated on 04/04/2025
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