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Mike Coppinger, ESPN
Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk will defend his WBC, IBF and WBA heavyweight titles against Daniel Dubois on Aug. 26 at the Tarczynski Arena in Wroclaw, Poland, Queensberry Promotions announced on Thursday.
The fight, which will take place on Ukrainian Independence Day Weekend, will be broadcast on TNT Sports Box Office in the U.K. No U.S. broadcaster was announced.
Usyk’s, promoter, K2, won the rights to the bout with a bid of $8.06 million in May.
Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) is ESPN’s No. 2 heavyweight after Tyson Fury, whom he was in talks to fight in April for the undipsuted championship. When negotiations collapsed in March, Usyk turned to his WBA mandatory challenger Dubois.
Dubois (19-1, 18 KOs) was a top prospect before he fractured his left orbital in a 10th-round KO loss to Joe Joyce in November 2020. He’s reeled off four wins since, most recently a third-round TKO win over Kevin Lerena in December.
Dubois, a 25-year-old Londoner, was floored three rounds in the opening round of that bout and is a 7-1 underdog to defeat Usyk.
Usyk, 36, is ESPN’s No. 3 pound-for-pound boxer. The Olympic gold medalist is the former undisputed cruiserweight champion and is coming off back-to-back victories over Anthony Joshua in a pair of heavyweight championship fights.
Usyk, a smooth-boxing southpaw, lifted the titles from Joshua via decision in September 2021 and retained them in the August rematch with another points victory.
He joined a territorial defense battalion in Ukraine after Russia invaded his homeland last year.
Source: www.espn.com