USYK AND DUBOIS MEET AGAIN AS A LEGEND RETURNS IN VEGAS

One night, three time zones, three world title fights, one hall-of-famer, one soon-to-be hall-of-famer and one future hall-of-famer, this Saturday night really does have it all for boxing fans.

The action gets underway at Wembley Stadium where Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois meet for a second time in their battle to be undisputed at heavyweight. We then head to Texas where Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez will look to unify in the super-flyweight division before the legendary Manny Pacquiao returns from a four-year hiatus from boxing to challenge Mario Barrios for his WBC World Welterweight Title.

First off, we’ll start in London.

In terms of heavyweight fights, it really doesn’t get much bigger than the undisputed championship being on the line in a packed-out Wembley Stadium in a rematch of a fight that was filled with controversy in the first fight. All of the above is exactly what we are getting this Saturday night.

Oleksandr Usyk, arguably the greatest heavyweight of this generation, taking on Daniel Dubois as he bids to become undisputed at heavyweight for the second time.

After becoming undisputed in his first victory over Tyson Fury last year, Usyk was subsequently stripped of his IBF world title in the aftermath.

This then gave Dubois the opportunity to fight for the full title against Anthony Joshua in February last year, a fight which he infamously won in emphatic fashion in the fifth round.

That’s how we got to where we are with the belt situation anyway.

To the first fight between the pair that took place back in August of 2023, it was a fight filled with controversy.

Usyk, seemingly controlling the fight in the early rounds, was caught by a shot on the belt in round five which winded him enough for him to take a knee. Fortunately for the Ukrainian, the ref ruled it as a low blow which saw him get a five-minute time-out.

A punch, that even two years on, divides opinions amongst the boxing faithful. Was it low? Was it legal? Should Dubois have been crowned unified champion on that summer’s night in Poland?

We’ll leave that down to you to argue over.

From that point on in the fight though, it seemed to drain the confidence out of Dubois.

Instead of putting it on Usyk knowing that whether the punch was low or not, he was badly hurt, he instead hesitated. He looked fragile. He looked unsure on how to go about his work.

The reigning champ, as all good champions do, got back to work and ultimately stopped the Brit in round nine of the fight.

Since then though, both fighters have been in arguably the form of their lives.

Usyk has recorded back-to-back victories over Tyson Fury whilst Dubois has been on a knockout spree against Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgović and then, as previously mentioned, Anthony Joshua whilst looking a completely different fighter to what he looked like against Usyk two years ago.

Now to the fight.

For Usyk, he already knows the blueprint to beat the Brit. Despite this Dubois being a much better Dubois than the one he beat two years ago, it’s not yet clear whether he has made the types of alterations that mean he has learnt enough to be able to outclass someone of Usyk’s calibre.

The Ukrainian needs to once again break Dubois’s heart. He saw how much he fell apart after the controversial low blow in the first fight and that will be at the forefront of his mind no doubt.

He needs to make him miss, he needs to continue to hit him from angles he didn’t even know existed. Dubois, like pretty much every single one of Usyk’s victims to date, really struggled to adapt to that fluid southpaw style. No one has had an answer for it yet and we’re yet to see if anyone ever will in the pro ranks.

If, and it’s still a big IF, Usyk can get into his rhythm early, expect a similar outcome to the first fight — but against someone who punches as hard as Dubois, you need to be switched on until the final bell.

So, how does Daniel Dubois become the first man to crack the Usyk code?

There are two ways he can realistically go about it. The short game and the long game.

The short game is simple. Give yourself six rounds and empty the tank in those 18 minutes and try to take Usyk’s chin off or crack multiple ribs with every single shot you throw.

Usyk isn’t known for being a criminally slow starter but the fact he’s not stopped someone inside six rounds for nearly 10 years suggests that his one-punch power isn’t probably there early on and, with the naked eye, it is clear that he prefers to break down his opponents systematically with his feet and with feints.

Dubois just needs to throw caution to the wind if he’s going to start fast. Make Usyk throw more punches than he usually does by setting an intense pace and making him as uncomfortable as possible.

If Dubois lands flush on Usyk’s chin at any point in the fight, he’s going to get hurt. That’s testament to the power that Dubois has in both hands. If Dubois lands flush multiple times on Usyk’s chin in the fight then we could well see the Ukrainian suffer defeat for the first time as a professional.

Now for the long game.

It’s no secret that Oleksandr Usyk isn’t a fan of being hit to the body — similar to a majority of people on this planet. He’s got one heck of a poker face but there have been times in his career when the mask has slipped slightly and you’ve seen him wince. Dubois needs to exploit that.

Jab to head and body. Mix up the power of both. Don’t just throw stiff jabs to both, make Usyk question what sort of jab is coming. Make him fall into a false sense of security sometimes then BAM — rib or chin tickler.

Something which Dubois has improved massively since the first fight is his footwork. He’s much lighter on his feet and, because of this, his defence is much better.

This could be crucial. Getting inside of Usyk and getting his shots off without getting caught and even more so, being able to cut the ring off much better than he did in the first fight.

If he can get to Usyk’s body early on in the fight and start to chop the tree down without taking too much damage himself, this fight really could go either way in the second half of the contest.

One thing is for sure though — with Usyk now nearing 40 and Dubois 11 years his junior, the difference in class between the two fighters is a lot smaller than it was in the first fight.

Is it enough for Dubois to become the first Brit to beat Usyk at the eighth time of asking? Only time will tell.

To Frisco, Texas now where one of the future greats of the sport, Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez, will be aiming to become unified champ in a second weight division at the age of just 25 against the much lesser-known WBO World Super-Flyweight champ Phumelela Cafu.

After outclassing Carlos Cuadras to become WBC World Super-Flyweight champ back in 2022, Bam has become a household name in the world of boxing with stoppage victories over the likes of Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, Sunny Edwards, Juan Francisco Estrada and Pedro Guevara.

It’s this sort of form which has seen Rodriguez now be touted for global stardom and to one day become a hall-of-famer.

Cafu, meanwhile, has gone about his business much more quietly.

Having fought out of South Africa for his first 13 fights, he upset hometown favourite Kosei Tanaka to claim a split-decision victory in his last fight on away soil and pick up the WBO world title.

He packs a punch, having claimed eight stoppage victories from his 11 professional wins to date, but the standard of opposition he has shared a ring with doesn’t come close to the type of opposition which Bam has dispatched.

Even though it looks a mismatch on paper, it’s a fight in which Bam cannot afford to take his eye off the ball.

It’s rumoured that he is on a collision course for a clash with Naoya Inoue in 2026, but any sort of defeat before that will completely scupper those plans.

If he fights his fight, he’ll have more than enough, but Cafu can bang, and if Bam does switch off a couple of times and get caught, he could make this a much harder night at the office than what he needs to.

The final card of the night sees the legend that is Manny Pacquiao return to challenge Mario Barrios for his WBC World Welterweight Title at the iconic MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

A fight that has split opinion due to many believing that, despite his legendary status in the sport, there are more worthy contenders that deserve a shot at Barrios than Pacquiao does.

The fact Pacman has been out of the ring for nearly four years and has won one fight in over six-and-a-half years — it’s understandable why so many people are outraged that he’s just come back and got a world title shot straight away.

He did have an exhibition contest against kickboxing star Rukiya Anpo last year, a fight in which he looked a shadow of his former self, but that was an exhibition contest so you can decide how much you want to look into that.

To the fight now though, and it really is a tricky one to call, simply down to the fact that we do not know what Pacquiao has left in the tank.

It’s all good looking sharp on the pads, but how good will he look when he’s in there with a champion who’s looking to take his head off?

Barrios isn’t a world-beater but, to his credit, he’s maximised his potential massively. He’s suffered defeats to both Gervonta Davis and Keith Thurman and was pushed all the way in his last fight to earn a draw against the 28-5-2 Abel Ramos.

He’s not exceptional at anything, but he’s good at everything. He is just that sort of fighter.

He does the basics really well, and if he can do that against a 46-year-old Manny Pacquiao, you’d think that this fight should be fairly straightforward for him.

However, this is boxing, and as we see time and time again, this sport always throws up some mad surprises and mad scenarios.

On the undercard is a rematch of one of the bloodiest contests in recent boxing history: Sebastian Fundora vs Tim Tszyu.

Standing at 6’6”, Fundora is one of the biggest figures in boxing — never mind the 154lbs division — and in the first fight, he used that to full effect.

After Tszyu suffered a revolting cut in the second round, he maintained his distance and kept targeting that cut on the top of the Aussie’s head.

Since then, he stopped Chordale Booker to defend his world titles but has since been stripped of his WBO world title, which means just his WBC world title will be on the line against Tszyu.

Son of the legendary Kostya, Tim Tszyu suffered a devastating stoppage defeat to Bakhram Murtazaliev for the IBF World Title in his first fight back after his war with Fundora, but he did look like he was back to his old self when returning to winning ways with a fourth-round stoppage of Joey Spencer in April.

This fight, like the main event, is tricky to call.

Despite the fact he had blood pouring into his eyes for 10 rounds in the first fight, one judge did have him up 116-112 on the final scorecards. That cut almost certainly changed the complexion of the fight, and you’d think that, on that basis, that was Fundora’s best opportunity to get a win over Tszyu — something which he clearly did.

It was shaping up to be a proper 50/50 before that happened, and we expect it to be a similarly close affair once again.

The game plan is obvious for both. For Fundora, use your range, and for Tszyu, use your speed and explosiveness.

The elephant in the room is the worry that cut could open up and completely ruin the fight once again.

If not, don’t be surprised if this turns out to be the fight of the weekend.

Don’t miss the Undisputed Heavyweight Championship, this Saturday, Usyk vs Dubois 2. Watch live and exclusively on DAZN, the global home of boxing with over 185+ fights per year. Buy the PPV now HERE