Heavyweight contender Otto Wallin expects a solid contest when Oleksandr Usyk defends the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO heavyweight belts against mandatory challenger Daniel Dubois.
Usyk and Dubois will collide on Saturday night in Poland.
“I think it’s a good fight. It’s nice for Usyk to fight in Poland. Next to Ukraine. It will probably be nice for him to have a lot of Ukrainians there who want to see him. It’s nice that he brings the fight there. He has had to have all his fights really abroad in different countries, but now he gets to fight pretty much in his backyard. I’m sure it’s a big motivation for him,” Wallin told Vegas Insider.
Dubois is a huge underdog, with Usyk entering the ring on the back of two impressive victories over British star Anthony Joshua.
However, Wallin points out how Usyk wasn’t exactly spectacular in his fights against Chazz Witherspoon and Derek Chisora.
“I think [Dubois] is the underdog, of course. But he’s a big guy. A big heavyweight and he’s a big puncher. So you can always give him the puncher’s chance to win the fight. But I think that Usyk is, of course, the better fighter and he looked great against Joshua,” Wallin said.
“But you got to remember, too, that he didn’t look that good against Chisora and Witherspoon, which was his first fight with the heavyweights. So we’ll have to wait and see how he looks in this fight. But of course, Usyk will be the favorite.”
“Usyk is a guy that fights anyone, really. And I like that with him. So I think he’ll probably take this fight as long as it would make sense and he would get paid enough. Especially since he hasn’t been able to make the fight with Fury, so he has to fight someone. I think this is probably a good fight for him right now.”