Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Usyk vs. Daniel Raphael Dubois 2 & Lawrence Okolie Jr. vs. Kevin Lerena RBR

Agreed, but it appears the cornermen chose to pull their man out

 

Interesting, didn't catch that obviously.

Bottom line, although I prefer to see fighters go out on their shield, the outcome is the same.

 

I'm picking Usyk via stoppage but I am very worried about this one and I wish Usyk hadn't agreed to give Dubois a rematch especially over here.

If you keep fighting punchers, let alone run a gauntlet of punchers and KO artists Usyk has, eventually you're going to get knocked out

If you keep fighting much bigger men and giants eventually you're going to come unstuck and get knocked out

If you keep fighting in your opponent's backyard or on the road, eventually you're going to lose, or lose after getting stitched up by the ref or judges

If you keep fighting much younger opponents, eventually you're going to come unstuck

If you keep doing this in your mid to late 30s when you're past your prime, the odds of you coming unstuck go through the roof

But if you keep doing all of that simultaneously like this crazy Ukrainian it's bordering on the supernatural how he has managed not to come unstuck and been knocked out already, multiple times even, let alone doing it when you're 38 going on 39 when past your prime in a division where your success hinges on attributes which diminish with age like speed, reflexes, reaction times, your legs and punch resistance

Usyk can't keep doing this and defying the odds

Everytime he goes to the well he returns with a pail which has less and less water in

I think he wants to punish Dubois and Dark Usyk is scary but Dubois is pretty fast, fast enough to catch Usyk with a huge bomb if Usyk makes one mistake, and he's very fundamentally sound, with a great jab which is fast and extremely heavy and he can KO anyone with that brutal power of his and if Usyk is slower than he was in the first fight or his chin has finally started to crack age and wear and tear Dubois could be the right man in the right place at the right time.

Don Charles thinks their respective ages is a big factor here and this does bear similarities to Tszyu vs Hatton where we had a fired up super hungry and motivated young lion in his backyard beating the old past prime far superior fighter in the twilight of his career, difference is those two were the same size and belonged in the same division and Tszyu was the bigger puncher whereas Dubois is obviously much bigger than Usyk and he can punch through concrete

If Usyk is still as fast and Dubois struggles to land, albeit he only needs to do so with the right shot once and he's a very good finisher, I wanna see the post-low blow Usyk we saw towards the end of that round and in the next who stepped up the intensity and was able to hit Dubois with that backhand at will

Those are my thoughts

 

Aadam Hamed (5-0, 3 KO) vs. Ezequiel Gregores (3-24, 0 KO), 4 rounds, super-lightweight

 

Round 1: Hamed, 10-9