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Boxing, as Oleksandr Usyk knows, gets everyone in the end. It is a harsh and pitiless business and earlier this week, at the end of a long afternoon answering the same old questions in front of a line of television cameras, Usyk sat down with a small group of familiar faces who have written about him for years. During his last assignment for the day he opened up a little more as he spoke about the sacrifices boxing demands.
He told us how much he wanted to see his wife, Yekaterina, as she had just flown into London and they would be reunited that evening. Three months had passed, in a gruelling training camp, since they had been together and Usyk spoke about missing her and their four children.
“It’s always been very difficult but I keep in mind that I have to be focused on training and I chose this path to be who I am now,” Usyk said before pointing out it was even harder for his family. “Sometimes we have to give away things to get even better things. And sometimes it’s the people around us, that are closest to us, who pay the price.”
I asked Usyk if he was able to call or FaceTime Yekaterina most days while preparing for battle on Saturday night with Daniel Dubois. “Yes, of course,” he said. “I’m always calling my wife early in the morning when our young daughter wakes up. She always wants to see her daddy. It’s in the morning and evening, sometimes even at lunchtime when there’s a break.”
Usyk denied that such long and enforced separations from his family would influence his decision as to when he might retire. “It doesn’t impact my thinking,” he said. “When I was very little [and living in Simferopol, the Crimean city annexed by Russia in 2014] my family was quite poor and sometimes there would be no money to even buy some bread. Now I’m working so hard so that my kids will have not just bread but butter.”
He smiled wryly, for Usyk has made so many millions out of boxing. But at the age of 38, the unbeaten world heavyweight champion is approaching the last days of his remarkable career. He admitted he might have only “two [more fights] left. This one and the next. I don’t know who that will be against because now my focus is only Daniel on Saturday.”
Usyk is a highly intelligent man who is aware this world title unification bout at Wembley Stadium is laced with jeopardy and an element of unpredictability. Dubois, who was gifted Usyk’s IBF version of his otherwise undisputed collection of belts by boxing politics last year, brings a new confidence and enduring power to the ring. He is also 11 years younger than Usyk and has improved greatly since the two men met in the ring for the first time in August 2023.
Dubois looked formidable in his most recent fight 10 months ago when he battered Anthony Joshua with bludgeoning force and dropped him four times to the canvas before the referee rescued his more famous victim. So it would not be a complete shock if Dubois’ destructive force stopped an ageing Usyk in his tracks. But it would still be a surprise – especially as Usyk fights with such fervour on behalf of Ukraine during an unremitting war against the Russian onslaught.
The hope, which has grown markedly amongst Dubois and his backers in recent months, centres on the one punch with which he dropped Usyk in the fifth round of that first bout almost two years ago. Dubois unleashed a hard right hand that landed on the beltline. The referee ruled it an illegal blow and Usyk slumped to the canvas and took full advantage as he recovered for more than four minutes. But perhaps the Ukrainian would have risen to his feet before the count of eight had the referee seen it as the legitimate punch which Dubois, his corner and many neutral observers appeared to witness.
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Dubois now believes he can capitalise and deliver punches of similar ferocity to both the head and body. Usyk, he insists, will crumple and relinquish his WBA, WBC and WBO titles. But if so much store is being placed in a single blow it seems right to pay equal attention to the rest of that first bout in Poland. Usyk, having dominated the early rounds, soon reclaimed his supremacy as he pummelled Dubois into a ninth-round submission. At that stage Usyk was far in front on all three scorecards – with two judges having him seven points ahead while the third saw a five-point difference.
Usyk had simply been too intelligent, skilful and tough. He was obviously the superior fighter and it seems a stretch to imagine that so much will have changed in the intervening 23 months to allow Dubois to prevail. “Daniel has got better and now he has a championship belt,” Usyk acknowledged. “But I haven’t been staying in one place either. I’ve been growing too.”
It should be remembered that Uysk endured two hard world title fights against Tyson Fury last year. Such ring wars drain even great fighters but Usyk’s sheer ringcraft, and savvy, mean that he is almost always better in rematches. He has a boxing brain like a computer and, having faced Dubois before, he will be attuned even more sharply to the dangers. Dubois, urged on by his trainer Don Charles who favours an aggressive, come-forward style, will seek to impose his size and power and hasten the end of Usyk’s fading days in the ring.
But the suspicion remains that the Ukrainian master still has enough wizardry to repel the threat and win a clear decision. Usyk’s long and unbeaten career will reach a shuddering conclusion, eventually, but it’s unlikely to be against Dubois on a fevered night at Wembley.
