Former super-middleweight world champion Carl Froch has revealed where he’ll rank Daniel Dubois compared to other British heavyweights, including Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, if he beats Oleksandr Usyk at Wembley on Saturday.
Dubois, 27, comes into the contest holding the IBF heavyweight title while the current unified heavyweight titleholder Usyk, 38, boasts the WBA (Super), WBC, WBO and Ring Magazine belts.
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Wembley Stadium will be packed to the rafters by fans eagerly anticipating the intriguing bout this weekend. Of course, the pair previously went toe-to-toe in Wroclaw, Poland, in August 2023, with Usyk winning via knockout in round nine.
Almost two years on from the pair’s first clash, Dubois is a different beast. Since his defeat in Poland, the 27-year-old Londoner has defeated Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic and most impressively stopped Joshua, 35, in round five of the all-British clash at Wembley last summer.
As for Usyk, he has beaten Fury twice since his last fight with Dubois and was his usual slick self in the ring during those bouts. But at 38, is he slowing down? We will find out on Saturday night.
Dubois will have to do something that no other man has done in Usyk’s 23 professional bouts and finish the contest as the victor.
And if he does win, in turn, he will have achieved something Fury and Joshua couldn’t despite sharing a ring with the 38-year-old on four combined occasions.
Ahead of the fight, Froch spoke to SPORTbible on behalf of casino.co.uk and explained where Dubois will rank on the list of all-time British heavyweight champions if he beats Usyk.
Froch said: "You'd have to put him right up there.
"You've got Lennox Lewis at number 1, then the likes of Tyson Fury, maybe AJ in there. Frank Bruno, Joe Bugner, Herbie Hide, Henry Cooper.
"You've got to go back years, so if you're looking at what you consider to be the top British heavyweights in the last couple of generations, you'd put Lewis at 1, Fury at 2, and then you'd have AJ around the number 3 mark.
"If Dubois beats Usyk, after what Usyk did to both Fury and AJ, unless Usyk looked terrible and past his prime, if he gets beaten, he gets beaten. He's still in form, lives the life and is looking good.
"With that in mind, you can make an argument for Dubois going in at number 2 ahead of Fury. On paper, you can make the case because Fury lost to Usyk twice.
"In reality, Fury has that trilogy with a prime Deontay Wilder in the book, plus the win over Klitschko in Germany.
"It's a close second, but he definitely takes the number 3 spot from Anthony Joshua. Dubois is only 27, too, so he’s got plenty of time on his side.”
Topics: Anthony Joshua, Boxing, Carl Froch, Heavyweight Boxing, Oleksandr Usyk, Tyson Fury, Wembley Stadium, Spotlight
Luke Davies