Daniel Dubois returns to Wembley with perhaps the trickiest assignment in boxing – solving the puzzle that is Oleksandr Usyk.
Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury have both tried and failed on two occasions with the masterful Ukrainian adding them to his list of battered and broken victims. The former cruiserweight king has been right at home outboxing the best of British – since November 2018, he has fought just one fighter outside the UK, leaving a trail of devastation in his wake in beating them all.
Usyk effortlessly danced around the country’s best generation of heavyweights on his way to being crowned undisputed heavyweight champion last year – a feat he is looking to achieve again on Saturday night by reclaiming the IBF title against Daniel Dubois.
Dubois has also been there before and fallen short, put down by Usyk in what was his first world title fight in August 2023 in Poland.
So what’s different now? Dubois’ journey since that night in Wroclaw has been transformational. While the fight was engulfed by that low blow controversy, the Londoner could not find the killer touch to finish his vulnerable opponent in the fifth round before having the spirit pummelled out of him.
It again raised questions over Dubois’ heart, posing the same questions that had dogged him ever since his 2020 defeat to Joe Joyce. Dubois took a knee in the 10th round that night after his opponent’s ramrod jab battered him into submission, causing extensive damage to his eye.
Those setbacks were the making of Dubois. In a must-win fight for both men, Dubois produced a final round knockout to down Jarrell Miller in December 2023.
Six month later, he left the previously undefeated Flilip Hrgovic a bloody mess on his way to becoming IBF heavyweight champion.
Last September removed any remaining doubts over Dubois’ place at the top of the division – dismantling Anthony Joshua in front of 90,000 at Wembley. The killer instinct Dubois was previously accused of lacking was there for all to see.
Johnny Nelson has been one of Dubois’ toughest critics over the years. But the former cruiserweight champion believes the difficult nights and the scrutiny that followed have moulded him into something better.
‘The main person who needed those questions answered was Daniel,’ Nelson told Metro.
‘There is always doubt in situations like that but doubt can turn into belief and that is what has happened to Daniel.
‘He has more faith in himself and that’s all he needed. The experience he went through were very tough, damaging for him. But he needed those experiences to say I can do this.
‘Everyone thinks you need to have an unbeaten record to be a star which is rubbish. It is great for the promoters when it comes to selling a fight but winning and losing is part of boxing and it moulds a fighter. It makes them the fighter they are. Daniel’s losses are part of his making.’
While Dubois has concussive power, Usyk’s bewildering ability could be the difference once again on Saturday as he demonstrated two years ago in Poland. But the WBO, WBA and WBC champion is now 38 years old with 24 gruelling rounds with Fury adding more miles to the clock since the first fight.
While still only 27, Dubois now has the world title experience he sorely lacked first time around. And as he so brutally demonstrated against Joshua, he also possesses the instinct to put his man down and keep him there.
Beating Usyk would see Dubois become the second Briton after Lennox Lewis in 1999 to reign as undisputed heavyweight champion – a feat Fury and Joshua chased and chased. The dream may be gone for them but for Dubois, it stands before him.
‘Daniel can eclipse both of them,’ Nelson said. ‘Usyk has left a trail of devastation behind him. Daniel has already knocked out AJ, there will be a lot of people believing he can knock out Fury if that fight ever happens.
‘If he beats the giant killer in Usyk, he is ahead of them both.’