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.”
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