You of course know why Daniel Dubois is out in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – he is there to watch the fight we will all be watching on Saturday night: the rematch between heavyweight ruler Oleksandr Usyk and former champ Tyson Fury. But Dubois, the reigning IBF heavyweight champ, is no mere spectator.
Speaking with Talk Sport earlier today, “DDD” stated that he wants to fight the winner. Dubois – who lost via stoppage to Usyk last summer, the fight somewhat controversial due to the whole “did Dubois hit Usyk low or did he drop him with a legal body shot?” saga – fully believes he would beat Usyk in a return fight. Dubois is also sure he could beat Fury.
We have to wait and see what happens on Saturday night. If Fury wins, there may well be a third fight between he and Usyk. If Usyk repeats his May win, Dubois may well get his shot at revenge; Usyk’s manager recently stating that, after Usyk beats Fury a second time the only fight left of any interest for him at heavyweight is a return with Dubois.
“I’m out here in Saudi and I want the winner on Saturday,” Dubois said. “I want the winner, I want to fight for the undisputed. That is what the aim is now, that is the goal. 100 precent [I would beat both Fury and Usyk]. This is my time now, I have been through the ups and downs but I’m a new man. I am a man of the future and I’m ready to fight for the undisputed and win and go down in boxing history.”
Later on the Talk Sport show, featherweight legend Barry McGuigan came on, and he said that in his opinion “Daniel is the hardest puncher in the division at the moment, he is ridiculously dangerous.”
Dubois, before can fight either Usyk or Fury, must come through okay in his February 22 title defence against former WBO heavyweight champ Joseph Parker. Parker himself is on a real roll, and like Dubois he too feels better than ever. But if Dubois can do a job on Parker maybe he will be the obvious fight for the winner of Saturday’s rematch between Usyk and Fury. Again, that’s unless the two sign on to box a trilogy fight.
Dubois, though, seems most keen on a second fight with Usyk, with him saying today that he himself as a fighter is “leagues above” the guy he was back in the late summer of 2023.
