why was Dubois effective against AJ but not Usyk

Defense & footwork.

Usyk is too defensively responsible to get caught by the kind of shots that landed on AJ, especially that shot in the first round.

 

Usyk is always moving and is difficult to hit flush.

Joshua is stationary by times and so is easier to hit.

 

Levels...

 

This.......
Usyk is clearly levels ahead of every other heavy, it isn't really that close considering he's outsized by everyone at the weight.

 

Self-belief and because Joshua is static, hesitant, and predictable.

 

Usyk kept his cool and rational thinking when bombs we’re coming towards him, and he also has better technical tools to deal with it, he’s able to keep his focus on them and see them coming, get his head off of the centre line and predict what Dubois will throw next, whereas Joshua was misjudging range, then defending and pulling away blindly when Dubois was unloading etc.

 

Joshua is a much bigger and slower target. Not to mention Joshua isn’t clever when it comes to slipping shots.

Another thing that was Usyk’s ring generalship. He was setting the pace of the fight and never let Dubois get comfortable or relax, so Dubois stayed tense the whole fight, which isn’t good, since it’s hard connect if your tense.

 

Add in 'styles make fights' to the mix, and that's why we had a great demolition job last night, Exo..


It's alway's good to see fighters shine.

 

AJ fought a bizzare fight… I couldn’t believe what I was seeing… his hands were down constantly, he was too nonchalant, he clearly underestimated Dubois

 

I still believe Joshua took the fight too easy. He prepared two punches, the right hook and the uppercut thinking he can finish Dubois easily like he did with Ngannou. To me it's more Joshua who lost the fight than Dubois who won it and I would have bet my money on Joshua again if there was a rematch.

Usyk had too much of movement to be calculated. His footwork, body leaning to all sides and feinting with all means made it impossible for Dubois to play out his physical advantages. Levels... plus mental state. Dubois still needs to work on character, but he's young and has time.

 

After last night, I firmly believe the AJ fight could have gone the other way if AJ had been defensively responsible. I love Usyk, but he's really not a hard hitter. If he can score a one-punch KD followed by a one-punch KO, AJ absolutely could have done it if he could have landed it.

 

Anything we can say is that he was paid massivly more to loose against usyk than he was paid to win against aj ...

 

Exactly, Usyk has excellent footwork