OLEKSANDR USYK has warned Daniel Dubois that his boxing brain is one nut Britain’s best and biggest cannot crack.
Derek Chisora gave the 38-year-old Ukraine icon five torrid 2020 rounds before being outpointed.
Oleksandr Usyk warned Daniel Dubois his boxing IQ is too much for him
Usyk and Dubois are set for a massive rematch on Saturday at Wembley
Usyk won the first match by knocking Dubois out in 2023
Anthony Joshua tried to outbox the fox and was handed back-to-back defeats in 2020 and 2021
And 6ft, 9in Tyson Fury tried to abuse and bully the former cruiserweight king and was also handed consecutive 2024 losses.
Respectful and reserved Dubois gave it a decent whack in 2023 but he surrendered in the ninth after running out of ideas and energy.
But now the rematch is back at Wembley – for all four world titles and undisputed legacy – and Dubois looks like the last Englishman tasked with trying to best the greatest IQ in modern boxing.
Chisora told SunSport that Usyk is having his supreme engine and southpaw skills boosted by the ongoing invasion of his beloved country. And he agreed.
“What Chisora said is true.” Usyk told us. “You can’t crack my head.
“Everyone wants to talk about their punches or their power. I just wait for my time. I just wait for the bell to go DING and the referee to say: ‘box’.”
Usyk’s training regime defies sports science; he swims for hours, ships in the best giants sparring partners from all around the world and throws in mind games and magic tricks – the man can really dance too.
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But it’s his brain that has helped him keep ice cool against verbal and physical provocation from some of the most dangerous men on the planet, while he counters with a gap-toothed grin and a boxing masterclass.
“The brain and the body are the same,” he explained. “If you have the brain but no fitness, it’s bad.
“But if you have the best conditioning but a weak brain, it’s also bad.
“When you do conditioning training, it has to hurt, you have to come through that and that’s mental.”
One other weapon in Usyk’s artillery is the inspiration he takes from his father.
Oleksandr Sr died days after his son’s 2012 Olympic win, before his boy could get the medal back to him.
Instead the gold went into his coffin and, in the following years, pre-fight dreams would be the only time he saw his father.
Now his mum Nadiya guides the ship and she had strict instructions for her lad, after the family jewels took an almighty whack in the first fight.
Usyk explained: “My mum always says ‘Alex, please be careful of the punches’.
“She told me to have a big groin protector.”
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