Usyk will defend his WBA, IBF, and WBO championships against Daniel DuBois in Wroclaw, Poland but considering its location near the border of Ukraine, it is almost a home fight for the champion.
Usyk will be fighting for the first time since his rematch win over Anthony Joshua last August while DuBois returns to the ring after stopping Kevin Lerena last December in three rounds in a fight that saw DuBois knocked down three times in round one before rallying for the win.
DuBois can punch but will have to answer questions about his chin after the Lerena near-disaster and the tenth round stoppage in his only defeat against Joe Joyce.
The WBA's minor heavyweight title that is currently held by DuBois will be eliminated following the fight, which will leave only three minor titles remaining (Super middleweight David Morrell, welterweight Eimantas Stanonis, and lightweight Gervonta Davis) as the WBA works toward eliminating the lesser titles.
The remaining two fights in the boxing challenge will also be from the heavyweight division as ESPN/Top Rank will broadcast from Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The main event will showcase unbeaten Jared Anderson against veteran Andriy Rudenko in a ten-rounder.
Anderson had his first career hiccup when he was badly hurt by Charles Martin in the fifth round in July.
Anderson won the remaining nine rounds to win an easy decision and I think it will be a good experience for the young heavyweight to work his way through adversity now rather than have it happen for the first time at the elite level.
The thirty-nine-year-old Rudenko has always lost against world-class or just under-level opponents such as Alexander Povetkin, Hughie Fury, Zhilei Zhang, and Lucas Browne but took all of those men the distance but was stopped for the first time in his career in his last fight as Vladyslav Sirenko took Rudenko out in six.
The heavyweight co-feature will pair Efe Ajagba and Zhan Kossobutskiy.
Ajagba was once a highly touted prospect before a 2021 loss to Frank Sanchez and has fought only twice since and looked very average in his January decision victory over Stephan Shaw.
The 19-0 Kossobutskiy was the fighter originally planned to face Jared Anderson in July but had some issues in traveling and was forced to pull out with Charles Martin replacing him.
Kossobutskiy is reported to be a huge puncher and if the whispers are true, could be a fighter to watch.
At 34, Kossobutskiy will need to be moved quickly so it will be interesting to see how he handles Ajagba.
Boxing Challenge
Vince Samano: Usyk Unanimous Decision
No comments:
Post a Comment