Eddie Hearn was in awe of how Oleksandr Usyk took the fight to the bigger, stronger Daniel Dubois to “beat him up” and knock him out last Saturday.
Usyk’s Knockout Strategy
Hearn notes how initially unified heavyweight champion Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs) was fighting defensively in the first round. He finally decided he wasn’t going to retreat anymore and took the fight to Dubois (22-3, 21 KOs) to get a fifth-round knockout.
“Usyk is phenomenal. What a fighter. If you watch that fight, Usyk was under pressure in the first round because Dubois came out fast like he did against AJ. If he catches you, you’re in trouble,” said Eddie Hearn to the media, discussing Oleksandr Usyk’s win over Daniel Dubois.
Oleksandr stayed calm in the first round despite being under attack the entire time by Dubois and taking some big shots. Those same punches had Anthony Joshua feeling last September at Wembley Stadium.
“I think just after that, he decided, ‘I’m not going to go on the backfoot anymore. I’m going to take the fight to Dubois,’ and he just kind of beat him up and obviously stopped him. He’s beaten AJ twice, Fury twice, and Dubois twice. Unbelievable,” said Hearn.
Usyk did the same thing against Fury. He got tired of fighting defensively in the first fight and went on the attack in the ninth. He had Fury close to being stopped.
“You’ve got the pound-for-pound #1 facing off with Jake Paul in the ring. The world has gone mad. What is he doing in the ring?” said Hearn about Paul being allowed into the ring after Usyk’s win over Dubois last Saturday at Wembley Stadium.
That would be funny if Usyk chose Jake Paul as his final fight of his career before retiring. Tyson Fury wouldn’t be happy about it because he’d miss out on the trilogy match that he’s pushing for. Usyk is too serious a person for him to be willing to stoop to the level of fighting Paul.
Usyk’s Legacy Discussed
“Now, you have to talk about him as one of the greats, the heavyweight greats,” said Hearn about Usyk. “There are very few heavyweights that would be able to compete over multiple generations against fighters like Mike Tyson and Ali. What a fight that would be. Those are two genius fighters [Ali and Usyk]. You’d fancy him to beat Mike Tyson and Larry Holmes.”
It would be interesting if there were a way of using a time machine to take Usyk back in time to the 1960s to fight Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali. Then take him to the 80s to face Mike Tyson.
“He’s taking the fight to the bigger guys. He boxed on the back foot in the first round. Then he said, ‘F*** this, I’m not going it anymore. I’m going to beat him up.,” said Hearn.
Usyk has no choice but to fight back when Dubois begins backing him up, landing big shots with both hands. In the fifth, Usyk got hit with a hard right hand that made him realize that he needed to fight Dubois at his own game.
That’s when he dropped him with a right hand. The fight was basically over at that point. Dubois got up but was too hurt to defend himself and was quickly knocked down a second time. The fight was then stopped.
Last Updated on 07/20/2025
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