27-year-old Daniel Dubois will get his shot at revenge over Oleksandr Usyk in July, when the rematch will go ahead at Wembley Stadium. And it’s clear “Dynamite” is happy to play the role of the bad guy in the lead-up to the July 19th rematch.

(Credit: Queensberry)

Today, the two rival heavyweight champions (Usyk holds the WBA/WBO/WBA titles, Dubois holds the IBF strap that was stripped from the Ukrainian) went face-to-face for the first time going into the return fight, and Dubois took it upon himself to disrespectfully shove Usyk.

It’s almost always the way these days, at face-offs, at press conferences, sometimes at weigh-ins, with the two fighters getting into something physical. And it happened again this morning inside the huge Wembley Stadium. Usyk, 23-0(14), always remains cool when under any kind of pressure, in or out of the ring, and Dubois will almost certainly be disappointed if he hoped to get under Usyk’s skin or scare him. Usyk has ice flowing through his veins; this much we all know.

As soon as he made his move and shoved Usyk back, the heavyweight champ seemed to be close to pouncing on his rival, but thought better of it. All fun and games, no doubt.

Still, Dubois fans will likely be pleased to see their hero so pumped up and aggressive ahead of this fight. Dubois, 22-2(21) says he will “end Usyk’s career” in July, that he will “put him to sleep for real” this time. Dubois is still adamant he was cheated out of a body shot KO when he fought Usyk back in August of 2023 in Poland.

Usyk, 38, says he will have this fight and perhaps one more before retiring, and he will likely step into the ring in London as a pretty big favourite to repeat his win. That said, Dubois has improved a heck of a lot since he was stopped in the ninth round by Usyk, and he is, as we saw again today, brimming with confidence. And aggression.