FRÂŃĶ WÄŘREN: I'M NOT WORRIED ABOUT DANIEL DUBOIS BEING UNDERDOG IN USYK REMATCH - NEITHER IS HE
Fränk Warreņ believes that Daniel Dubois will once again make a mockery of his underdog status and beat Oleksandr Usyk in their upcoming undisputed heavyweight title fight.
IBF titleholder Dubois will face Ring Magazine, WBC, WBA and WBO champion Usyk in a rematch at London's Wembley Stadium on July 19th.
Over 70,000 tickets have been sold for the fight which could see Dubois make history.
Although Dubois' fellow Brit, Lennox Lewis, was universally recognised as the undisputed heavyweight champion when he outpointed Evander Holyfield in 1999, Lewis never held the WBO title.
Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) recently told talkSPORT that beating 38-year-old Usyk (23-0, 14 KOs) would be "the greatest victory in boxing" and his promoter Warren agrees with the Londoner's assessment.
"Look, the blue riband is the heavyweight division, I think everybody agrees on that," Warren told Queensberry.
"The four belts are on the line, it's the biggest one out there. No Brit has ever held the four belts.
Dubois is still only 27-years-old but his eight-year pro career has been a rollercoaster ride.
His prodigious punching power and a whole host of leaked stories about his sparring exploits meant that he was anointed as a future heavyweight champion before even entering the professional ranks.
Things went perfectly until November 2020 when Joe Joyce's thumping jab cracked his eye socket and forced him to take a knee in the tenth round of their British, Commonwealth and European title fight. From that point, a man once touted as the division's future was widely written off as a frontrunner who would crumble the moment he encountered any resistance.
Critics were given further fuel by the way he broke down mentally during his first fight with Usyk. Fighting the Ukrainian is an exhausting and frustrating experience, though Dubois sank to his knee and allowed himself to be counted out in the ninth round of their unified heavyweight title fight in Poland two summers ago.
Suddenly fighting for his career, the lack of expectation seemed to wake up something inside Dubois. He stopped Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic in genuine make-or-break fights and last September, arrived at Wembley Stadium for his fight with Anthony Joshua as the IBF heavyweight champion.
A self-assured Dubois looked absolutely unstoppable from the moment he left his dressing room and demolished the two-time unified champion in five one-sided rounds to cement his status as a worthy world champion.
Warren has stuck with Dubois since the very start of his career and although Dubois will be an underdog once again on July 19th, the Hall of Fame promoter believes that he is in the perfect spot to score a famous victory.
"He's not been a favourite going into his last four fights. Make that five fights because the bookmakers are making Usyk the favourite," Warren said.
"He wasn't a favourite in Poland, those Riyadh Season fights with Miller and Hrgovic and certainly wasn't against Joshua where he went into the lion's den.
"I ain't worried about that and he's not worried about it. He's in a good place of mind, believes in himself and his ability as we do. That's why we've made the fight."
