Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday cemented his status as the outstanding heavyweight of his generation with an emphatic fifth-round knockout of Daniel Dubois in their undisputed world title bout at London’s Wembley Stadium.
Victory saw Ukraine’s Usyk extend his unbeaten professional record to 24 fights as the WBA, WBC and WBO champion added his British opponent’s IBF belt to his collection.
Usyk, now a two-time undisputed heavyweight champion — and three times in all after previously mastering the cruiserweight division — dominated the opening four rounds.
Photo: Reuters
Early in the fifth he dropped Dubois to the canvas.
Moments later he finished the fight in decisive fashion after a trademark left hook left his British rival unable to beat the count 1 minute, 52 seconds into the round.
It was the second time Usyk, at 38 some 11 years older than his opponent, had defeated Dubois following a ninth-round stoppage success in Krakow, Poland, in 2023, where the Briton was ruled to have landed an illegal low blow in the fifth round.
Lennox Lewis, the last British boxer to be undisputed world champion in 1999, forecast before Saturday’s fight that Usyk would face a vastly improved Dubois.
However, after Usyk was roared into the ring by a huge contingent of supporters, many of them waving Ukraine national flags in a 90,000 capacity crowd at Wembley, it was largely one-way traffic as their hero conducted a ruthless masterclass against local favorite Dubois.
With his characteristic pragmatism, Usyk shut down any questions over whether he can motivate himself to keep going after the knockout win.
Asked how he was able to continue competing with such drive at the age of 38, Usyk told reporters: “I don’t have motivation, I have discipline.”
“Motivation is temporary, today you have it, tomorrow you wake up early and you don’t have it,” he said. “When I wake up early morning for training, I never have motivation, I only have discipline. Only amateur sportsmen need motivation. Motivation is good, but discipline is better.”
Usyk said he and his team had put the lessons they had learned from their first meeting with Dubois to use, adding that they had even named the precise combination of blows that led to their victory.
“We prepared for this fight, with my team. We learned from the first fight, we had a long time, two years to prepare a combination,” he said.
“The punch is named Ivan,” he said. “It’s a Ukrainian name, it’s like a big guy who lives in a village and works on a farm. It’s a hard punch.”
While Usyk was noncommittal on who he would face next, he said that he was not yet ready to hang up his gloves.
“Now I want to rest. I cannot say who my next opponent is today, because I’ve been preparing for three-and-a-half months. I don’t see my family, my wife,” he said. “Every day I live with my team, with 14 guys in one house.”
Boston Red Sox pitcher Connelly Early on Tuesday struck out 11 in five shutout innings to match a franchise record during his MLB debut against the Oakland Athletics. “Pretty sick performance,” teammate Romy Gonzalez said. “It was fun to watch.” The only other Red Sox starter to rack up 11 strikeouts in his first career game was Don Aase versus the Milwaukee Brewers on July 26, 1977. “It was amazing, just to go out there and have that first opportunity,” Early said after getting the win in a 6-0 victory. “A long day of travel yesterday and just getting to the field, seeing
‘DEVASTATED’: Argentina’s win was a reversal of their 28-24 defeat last week, with Australian forward Fraser McReight adding that ‘we did the same thing last week’ Argentina flyhalf Santiago Carreras punished an undisciplined Australia with 23 points off the tee as the Pumas held on grimly for a 28-26 win in Sydney yesterday to breathe new life into their Rugby Championship campaign. A try-fest beckoned in afternoon sunshine at Sydney Football Stadium, but Argentina needed only one through captain Julian Montoya, with Carreras doing the damage with seven penalties and a conversion in front of a sell-out crowd. A week after letting a 14-point lead slip in a 28-24 defeat to Australia in Townsville, Argentina saw most of a 21-point advantage erased in the final quarter as the
ELEVEN STRIKEOUTS: Blake Snell allowed two singles and two walks against the Rockies as he ended a personal three-game skid with his first win since Aug. 16 Blake Snell on Wednesday struck out a season-high 11 in six innings, while Mookie Betts hit a grand slam in the eighth as the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Colorado Rockies 9-0 for their fourth straight win. Helped by their third series sweep of the Rockies this MLB season, the Dodgers increased their National League West lead to three games over the San Diego Padres, who lost 2-1 at home to the Cincinnati Reds. Betts went four for five with five RBIs, capped by his seventh career slam on a 3-0 pitch from reliever Anthony Molina to make it 8-0. Andy Pages and
China’s state-run People’s Daily newspaper on Monday published an essay about Chinese basketball it said was written by LeBron James, but a representative for the NBA star said on Thursday that the article was based on a series of interviews. The paper, better known as the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, had said James authored the essay, “Basketball is a Bridge that Connects Us,” a tribute to Chinese players and fans of the sport written in the first person. “LeBron James Pens an Article in the People’s Daily,” read a post published on the newspaper’s official WeChat account. On Thursday, a representative
RSS