Oleksandr Usyk has fought exclusively on the road throughout his journey toward becoming boxing’s undisputed cruiserweight champion and a unified heavyweight champ.
Ukraine’s Usyk has beaten Poland’s Krzysztof Glowacki, Americans Michael Hunter and Chazz Witherspoon, Germany’s Marco Huck, Latvia’s Mairis Briedis, Russia’s Murat Gassiev, England’s Tony Bellew, transplanted Brit Dereck Chisora and British superstar Anthony Joshua in their home countries over the past seven years. The 2012 Olympic gold medalist appreciates that his fight Saturday night against England’s Daniel Dubois in Wroclaw, Poland is as close as Usyk can come at the moment to defending his heavyweight titles in his war-torn home country.
Wroclaw is almost 600 miles from Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. According to published reports, more than 150,000 Ukrainians have sought refuge in the Wroclaw area since Russia invaded Ukraine roughly 18 months ago.
“I’ve been traveling around the world, fighting in different backyards of my opponents,” Usyk said during a press conference conducted recently in Wroclaw. “But this fight here in Poland will be the closest one to my home. So, I hope you’re gonna enjoy everything that’s gonna happen on the 26th of August in Wroclaw.”
Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) will defend his IBF, IBO, WBA and WBO belts against London’s Dubois (19-1, 18 KOs), who is the WBA’s mandatory challenger for one of Usyk’s crowns. The 36-year-old southpaw has dedicated this title fight at Tarczynski Arena Wroclaw to his brave countrymen, who are fiercely defending their homeland.
“First of all, I want to thank the guys who are defending Ukraine now,” Usyk said, “because only for the reason they are doing this we have the opportunity to defend our titles, to have our fights outside of Ukraine and to bring glory to our country and to the flag of our country.”
Usyk first became a world champion in Poland almost seven years ago. He won the WBO cruiserweight title from Glowacki (then 26-0), whom Usyk beat by unanimous decision in September 2016 at Ergo Arena in Gdansk, Poland.
“I’m really happy to be back in Poland,” Usyk said. “This country greeted me well. I have become the WBO cruiserweight champion here, together with Krzysztof Glowacki. We’ve beaten each other [up] a little bit. Now for the next seven years, I have collected several belts. And now I’m back in Poland, here to defend them. I want to thank the people of Poland for the support that they are giving to Ukraine.”
TNT Sports Box Office will televise Usyk-Dubois as the main event of a pay-per-view broadcast scheduled to start at 6 p.m. BST in the United Kingdom and Ireland (£19.95). ESPN+ will stream Usyk-Dubois and a portion of its undercard in the United States (2 p.m. EDT; 11 a.m. PDT).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.