Tony Bellew has commented on reports of what Daniel Dubois was doing on the afternoon of his second clash with Oleksandr Usyk.
Dubois was stopped back in August 2023 when he first fought Usyk. Back then, he was still rather green, yet still had the former cruiserweight champion down from a shot, albeit one that was ruled low. Rather than capitalise, he was eventually stopped by a stiff jab in the ninth round.
Since then, he has rebuilt well with three KO wins to head into the rematch this past weekend at Wembley with many people thinking he had a much better chance of victory.
It was clear early on that Usyk had too much as he danced around the ring, landed solid jabs, making Dubois miss, then putting him down early in the fifth before ending the fight moments later with a huge left hand.
It has since been reported that Dubois was at a party at his house, arranged by his father, with some suggesting 40-70-odd people on the afternoon of the fight with Usyk. Simon Jordan even reported that he had heard ‘DDD’ didn’t know many of the people and even asked to go for a drive to clear his head. Dubois then turned up late to Wembley, giving himself just 90 minutes to prepare for the biggest fight of his career.
Bellew reacted on X in the same way many have on hearing the news.
“Madness.”
Dubois’ trainer, Don Charles, has since defended the gathering, saying the father did the same for the Anthony Joshua fight so it was logical to repeat the same preparation.
