Oleksandr Usyk defends all the heavyweight belts against Daniel Dubois at Wembley on Saturday night so check out our big fight preview.
Boxing betting tips: Oleksandr Usyk v Daniel Dubois
2pts Oleksandr Usyk to win by decision 2/1 (BetVictor)
History will be made when Oleksandr Usyk takes on Daniel Dubois in their rematch at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night.
It is the first time an undisputed heavyweight title fight has taken place on these shores in the four-belt era and around 90,000 fans will be packed into the national stadium to witness it.
It’s nearly two years since their first meeting and there appeared to be no need for a rematch at the conclusion of that bout.
In front of 60,000 largely Ukrainian fans in Wroclaw, Poland, the fight went as the odds suggested with Usyk, a 1/10 chance, dominating for much of the bout before halting Dubois in the ninth round.
Dubois was 6/1 and thought to be too young and green to trouble Usyk, who bamboozled the Greenwich man with his constant movement and aggressive counter punching.
Usyk v Dubois 2: Big fight details and TV coverage
- When and where: Wembley Stadium in London, Saturday July 19
- Start time: Undercard approx 1730 BST, Main Event approx 1000 BST
- TV channel and cost: DAZN Pay-Per-View £24.99)
- Radio: TalkSport
- Belts: WBA, WBO, WBC and IBF heavyweight titles
- Records: Usyk 23-0 (14 KOs), Dubois 22-2 (21 KOs),
- Sky Bet odds: Usyk 1/4, Dubois 7/2
Exhausted as much as beaten up, Dubois took a knee and stayed down for the full 10 count for the second time in his career, leaving huge question marks over his desire and heart.
The main talking point afterwards was not the one-sidedness of the fight, but instead a flash point in the fifth session when Dubois connected with a low blow and Usyk took full advantage of the time allowed for such a shot by staying on the canvas for several minutes. Team Dubois screamed robbery and that their man should have been crowned champion as the shot was legal, but the referee called it ‘low’ straight away and Usyk reacted accordingly.
We don’t know but Usyk may have been straight back to his feet if the referee had deemed it a fair shot, plus he did get up to finish the round very strongly.
So, why the rematch? Well, a lot has changed since.
Not so much in Uysk (23-0), who has reached even greater heights with a pair of decision victories over Tyson Fury to stamp his claim as the best heavyweight of this generation. Adding that to his back-to-back victories over Anthony Joshua and his domination of a brilliant cruiserweight division previously, the Olympic gold medalist has an ultra-impressive body of work and has now been undisputed champion at two weights.
The main question over Usyk is will we see some regression in him? We haven’t yet, but he’s now 38 and those two Fury contests were gruelling events that could have taken something out of him.
We are talking maybes here, whereas with Dubois we can say he has definitely improved since their first contest.
Dubois (22-2) entered that contest on the back of being dropped three times by underdog Kevin Lerena (Dubois eventually won in the third round) and was a mentally weak 25-year-old, but he is a different animal now.
Four months after the Usyk loss, Dubois overcame all 333lbs of the durable Jarrell Miller to stop the American in the dying seconds of their 10-rounder, before taking the best shots previously unbeaten Filip Hrgovic could offer and outlasting him for an eight-round stoppage. Then came his crowning moment when, having been awarded the IBF belt that was stripped from Usyk, Dubois beat up and stopped Anthony Joshua in five rounds at this same venue. Dubois was brilliant from the first bell that night, pushing Joshua back with his ramrod jab and dropping him four times before the finish.
Usyk vs Dubois 2: Undercard
- MAIN EVENT: Oleksandr Usyk vs Daniel Dubois
WBA, WBO, WBC and IBF heavyweight titles - Lawrence Okolie vs Kevin Lerena
WBC silver heavyweight title - Daniel Lapin vs Lewis Edmondson
IBF inter-continental light-heavyweight title - Aadam Hamed vs Ezequiel Gregores
- Vladyslav Sirenko vs Solomon Dacres
Now, at 27, Dubois has no question marks over his heart or his stamina and comes into this with much more of a chance than he did the first time around. That is reflected in his odds, with 3/1 the best you can find about Dubois, while Usyk is ‘only’ 2/5.
Also, Dubois has home advantage now and it will be a very different experience for him than the partisan crowd he faced in Poland in August 2023.
Don Charles has done a great job in guiding Dubois to a world title, not just in boxing terms but more so in restoring the belief in his charge, who was seriously lacking in that department previously. And there is no doubt Charles will be urging his man to go to the body again because, while it was deemed low, that shot in the fifth round clearly troubled Usyk, and we have seen him hurt with (legal) shots downstairs before.
Armed with a fantastic jab, Dubois is athletic, powerful and full of confidence – making him a tough night’s work for anyone right now. If he can establish his jab and push Usyk back, then we have a real fight on our hands, and anyone caught cleanly by Dubois will know about it. 21 of is 22 wins have come inside the distance and those who fancy ‘Dynamite’ to detonate on Usyk can get 22/5 about a stoppage victory for the Brit.
However, catching Usyk cleanly has proven a very tricky task over the years and it could be an issue for Dubois again here. Usyk’s relentless feinting, twitching and head movement mean his opponents are constantly having to reset and, therefore, they can find it hard to plant their feet to unleash their power punches.
The difference in speed was evident in their first fight, with Usyk looking much quicker with both hand and foot, as he pivots around the target and peppers his man with shots from his southpaw stance. And that could be another problem for Dubois – left-handers. The only time he faced a southpaw prior to Usyk was Lerena, and that almost ended in tears for the Londoner.
As much as I respect Dubois and have been impressed by his improvement, I am not willing to back against Usyk until I see some decline with my own eyes.
The same result as last time – Usyk by stoppage – is the favourite method of victory at 11/8 and that is a runner, given how Usyk’s fights tend to play out. With his front-foot pressure and always being in range, he forces his opponents to work more than they want to early doors and when they begin to tire around halfway, he ramps up the pressure and goes through the gears. No heavyweight has the work rate of Usyk and, like the first fight, Dubois could fail through fatigue again.
However, I expect the local man to provide more resistance this time, and Usyk may not have his own way as much as he did that night.
Despite his advancing years, Usyk is still quicker and moves better than any heavyweight around, and that could be the deciding factor here, as Dubois struggles to find the constantly moving target in front of him.
And for all his silky skills, Usyk has a heart as big as they come and he has shown when caught with big shots in the past, that he roars back stronger than ever in the next round. For that reason, I’m not sure Dubois can get the stoppage he needs to win this one.
I was with Usyk by decision for both of his fights with Fury and I am sticking with that method here, with 2/1 available about the favourite winning on points. It may not be as straightforward as it was two years ago for him and I expect a much tougher battle this time, but it’s one I think the brilliant Usyk will prevail in – just like he has done 23 times before as a professional.
We have become used to superb undercards on these Riyadh Season-backed shows, so it is very disappointing to see such a poor support card here.
The aforementioned Lerena returns to the UK to test himself against another Brit in the shape of Lawrence Okolie, who wasted no time on his heavyweight debut with a first-round stoppage of the overmatched Hussein Muhamed in December.
Former cruiserweight champion Okolie has more on his plate now, as Lerena is better than Muhamed and will come with more ambition, so the visitor is no forlorn hope at 9/4.
Okolie can fast-track is way up the rankings by doing a better job on Lerena than Dubois and he’ll need a stoppage if he’s to impress. That outcome is 11/10 and looks the most likely.
As is the norm now, Daniel Lapin gets his usual spot on a Usyk undercard as the Ukrainian takes on Lewis Edmonson.
Both have identical records of 11-0 and although Edmonson boasts the best victory with his win over Dan Azeez (MD) last October, he is a 4/1 chance and Lapin is long odds-on at 1/4.
A European champion as an amateur, the favourite has the pedigree and is a huge for a light heavyweight at 6’6”, so he can box his way to another decision victory at 4/5.
Posted at 1030 BST on 18/07/25
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Both of these like to go for the knockout and they carry power, but I expect Marshall to have too much on her return to boxing and the 4/1 about her getting a stoppage looks too big to me.