1 day Ago By Ben Davies
Daniel Dubois has hit back at critics who questioned his decision to confront Oleksandr Usyk after his win over Tyson Fury. Dubois defeated Anthony Joshua to defend his IBF title with a stunning KO last September, and was sat ringside for the rematch between Usyk and Fury in Riyadh last month. He watched on as Usyk took a unanimous decision victory against the 'Gypsy King' - retaining all of the other heavyweight world titles.
And just a matter of moments after the decision was confirmed, 'DDD' stormed into the ring and issued a fight call-out. The usually reserved Briton crashed the party and the pair verbally agreed to meet in an undisputed title clash. But there were widespread critics of Dubois' actions, given they believed his approach took away any limelight briefly from Usyk's victory.
Dubois stands by his decision, and is not bothered by the noise surrounding his move. "This is boxing at the end of the day, any publicity is good publicity," he told BoxNation . "If they hate it or they like it then yeah.
I've been boxing long enough to understand that now. "It's not all about having everything your way and everyone love you, but as long as they want to see you that is all that matters. "But at the end of the day, I want to get through Parker and then that fight [with Usyk] is done.
"It's all about making noise, and as a world champion you can choose your destiny and path. "I'm just challenging in my eyes and I want to become undisputed champion and that's my intentions." Dubois' confrontation of Usyk did get him somewhere eventually, as the Ukrainian suggested he would be open to the fight.
Any meeting would be a rematch of their August 2023 clash, which saw Usyk stop the Briton . But it wasn't without controversy as Dubois felt hard done by having dropped Usyk earlier in the fight in what was deemed as a low blow to his annoyance. He has since had a hugely positive run beating Filip Hrgovic and Joshua to become a world champion for the first time.
But he will be hoping that a potential fight is a big enough lure to keep Usyk in the division. The IBF champion will first need to defend his title in a tough clash with Joseph Parker on February 22. And Usyk's manager Egis Klimas has suggested the unified champion will not be available to return until July or August for any fight with Dubois.
He said: “It’ll be a very long preparation. “After another 12 rounds with Fury, he needs a good, long recovery. It won't be till July or August.
“Dubois has to beat Parker before he can even start thinking of Usyk.".
