WBO, IBF, WBA, IBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk is planning to invite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to personally attend the upcoming defense with mandatory challenger Daniel Dubois.
The fight with Dubois is slated to take place on August 26 in Wroclaw, Poland.
“What is certain is that we will extend an official invitation to Volodymyr Zelensky. If he has time… But we understand he is busy almost 24 hours a day. I met the president more than once and I saw the state of fatigue that was crowding him. He may not show it, but you can see that he works around the clock,” Usyk told Przemyslaw Osiak.
“As long as he has time to come to the fight, take some time off… Maybe his visit won’t be officially announced? Maybe he’ll watch the fight somewhere on the sidelines? However, knowing Volodymyr Zelensky… if he comes, he will take a seat in the front row.”
Dubois will be the second heavyweight world title defense for Usyk – and the unbeaten champion will continue to take hard fights on the road without care.
Usyk was pleased when his promotional team began discussions to stage the fight with Dubois in the country of Poland, which borders the unified champion’s home country.
“It’s going to be a big event, but I’m glad it’s happening this way. I already said….. even before we won the bid for the Dubois fight, before I started talking about it with my promoter Alexander Krassyuk, I thought that fighting in Poland would be a good idea. This is a country close to Ukraine. We have good relations and Poland and it helps my homeland a lot. That’s why when it turned out that Alexander had already spoken with Andrzej Wasilewski about organizing a fight in your country, I just smiled widely and said: “Great,” Usyk explained.