HEAVYWEIGHT champion Oleksandr Usyk will fight Daniel Dubois on August 26 in Wroclaw, Poland.
The event had been planned for two weeks earlier on August 12 but has now been put back, so it can be nearer Ukraine’s Independence Day (August 24).
Usyk’s manager Oleksandr Krasiuk explained the change to TVP Sport.
“There are many Ukrainians living in Wroclaw.
“The fight will take place at a 24,000-seat stadium. We had to change the date of the fight from Aug. 12 to Aug. 26, because it is closer to Ukraine’s Independence Day. This is the perfect date to organize a fight with Dubois. We could not waste [this opportunity].”
Usyk’s promoters K2 Promotions won the rights to stage the fight. The Ukrainian will receive $6 million while the Briton will take home $2 million.
The Polish city of Wroclaw has taken in a number of Ukrainian refugees following Russia’s invasion of the country which began in February 2022. According to a report in the New York Times ‘A quarter of Wroclaw’s population speaks Ukrainian and or Russian, and around 20 per cent of school students are from Ukraine’.
Dubois 19-1 (18) will go into the biggest fight of his life with a new trainer. The British heavyweight left Shane Mcguigan’s gym last month to team up with veteran Don Charles. McGuigan and Dubois had won four fights from four since teaming up together in 2021.
The unbeaten Usyk 20-0 (13) had hoped to be facing now bitter rival Tyson Fury but earlier this year long, drawn out negotiations eventually saw any hopes collapse. Fury is still without an opponent for his next fight but speculation continues to link the two to a showdown later in the year in Saudi Arabia.
