Oleksandr Usyk‘s promoter doesn’t think he’ll be facing Daniel Dubois next.
Usyk was last in action in December when he once again defeated Tyson Fury to retain his unified world heavyweight titles, a repeat of their clash in May where that victory saw the Ukrainian become undisputed champion.
Immediately following that second win over Fury, speculation began over who Usyk would face next, with IBF champion Dubois seemingly being the likely option.
Dubois stormed the ring in the aftermath of the victory over Fury, demanding a rematch against the Ukrainian after their infamous meeting back in August 2023.
That fight 18 months ago saw Dubois drop Usyk with what he thought was a body shot, only for it to be ruled as a low blow. The champion recovered and went on to stop Dubois in the later rounds, but the Brit maintains to this day that he feels it was a legal shot.
Since the loss, Dubois has re-built his career, claiming stoppage wins over Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic and most recently Anthony Joshua, becoming the IBF champion in the process after Usyk vacated the title.
Whilst Dubois is adamant that a fight against Usyk is next, the Ukrainian’s promoter Alex Krassyuk disagrees, as he told Pro Boxing Fans that he believes the Brit will lose his title fight against Joseph Parker this weekend, thus giving the New Zealander the next crack at Usyk.
“There are not too many options for Usyk. To be fair the only one thing he can do is to fight for undisputed again. Dubois is one of the options but Dubois has to face a big challenge in February. He has to fight Joseph Parker. My bet is with Parker.
No disrespect to Daniel, I love this guy, but I’ve been in boxing for a while so this is my perception, I feel that Parker has a bigger chance to win due to his footwork and technical skills and using his actual skill and boxing IQ.
I feel that Parker is going to win. The winner of this fight will be the champion and Usyk has the other three belts, so it’s logical to join them together again.”
Krassyuk isn’t the only man to offer his thoughts on the Dubois vs. Parker fight, with former undisputed heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis also making a prediction.
