When Joe Joyce pounded Daniel Dubois into near-blindness in 2020, it would have seemed implausible that we would end up here. Joyce is looking to rematch Zhilei Zhang, after his own orbital bone spectacularly gave out in a punishing defeat. Dubois on the other hand has just landed the opportunity of a lifetime, as his fight with WBA, WBO, IBF and The Ring heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk is confirmed. The Ukrainian will defend his gold against Dubois on 26th August at Tarczynski Arena in Poland.
It is a fight that probably wouldn’t exist without the depressing machinations of the WBA. Dubois won their spurious ‘regular’ title from the ordinary Trevor Bryan in June 2022. The sanctioning body’s secondary title shouldn’t even exist, a fact the WBA have finally acknowledged. After getting dropped three times on the way to a third-round knockout win over blown-up cruiserweight Kevin Lerena last December, Dubois was sanctioned as the WBA mandatory. This shot at Usyk comes less from merit than political manoeuvring.
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Not that the boardroom-level scuffles are any of Dubois’ concern. The 19-1 Brit is probably just glad to have landed the winning lottery ticket. While he won’t quite go in as a James ‘Buster’ Douglas-priced 40-1 underdog, he will probably be the least-favoured heavyweight challenger in a good while.
Dubois looked to be this country’s next great heavyweight hope before he ran into ‘Juggernaut’ Joe. A decision win over world title challenger turned quality journeyman Kevin Johnson in his ninth fight showed promise. A fifth-round knockout of Nathan Gorman to clinch the British heavyweight title demonstrated Dubois’ ability to shine on the big occasions. He was 15-0 by the time he bravely agreed to fight Joyce for the unified British, European and Commonwealth titles.
The hurtful defeat didn’t derail him too much. Bogdan Dinu and Joe Cusumano were brutalised in three total rounds. But the win over Bryan, as one-sided as it was, perhaps put him into the world level conversation a little too soon. The WBA ‘regular’ belt could have been a safe haven to ease into that category, but the sanctioning body’s insistence in clearing up its title mess has put Dubois in with a fearsome world champion a little ahead of schedule.
Still only 25, theoretically a defeat could not be the end of Dubois’ journey. But it would be a long climb back for the challenger if he were to lose. The Joyce loss planted doubt in the minds of many. Now Joe has suffered his own defeat, that reverse is arguably a little less forgivable. When he had only lost to a fighter many predicted to give Usyk or WBC champion Tyson Fury fits, that was one thing. Now that loss came against someone whose head unceremoniously bounced off the heavyweight glass ceiling, it is a more worrying sign.
If this fight is going to do little for Dubois, it could do even less for Usyk. ‘The Cat’ is unlikely to have been the reason a fight with the hard-to-pin-down Fury didn’t happen. And yet, there will still be a fair amount of disappointment surrounding this bout. It is misplaced, given the fact the alternative was Usyk relinquishing his WBA title and scuppering a potential future undisputed title unification with ‘The Gypsy King’. But there are still reasons for fans to feel hard done by.
It wasn’t quite Fury or bust for Usyk. Fans would have flocked to see him engage former WBC champion Deontay Wilder for example. Ex-unified king Andy Ruiz Jr would also have provided a name foe with a little added jeopardy. One wonders if Joyce, the WBO interim champion before Zhang brutally relieved him of the belt, would have been in line for a shot before his upset defeat. The point is, there were options out there outside Fury that would still have excited the fans. No offence to Dubois, but ‘Dynamite’ isn’t one of them.
It’s the fight we’ve got though. Arriving a year and six days after Usyk beat Anthony Joshua in their rematch, one hopes it won’t take the champion another 12 months to fight again. At the age of 36, he can scarcely afford more delays. Perhaps he won’t even be the champion when the Wroclaw Arena closes its doors for the night. Stranger things have happened. Just ask Hasim Rahman.
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject To Change
