The legendary Mike Tyson stated that he had never watched Daniel Dubois fight in the squared circle prior to his heavyweight title bout with Oleksandr Usyk last August, which ended in controversy. Mike Tyson admitted he had never seen Daniel Dubois box before his heavyweight title bout against Oleksandr Usyk last summer.
Mike Tyson made an interesting admission on Daniel Dubois last year (Image: Getty Images for Netflix)
Despite DDD making a name for himself worldwide, racking up an impressive 19-1 record heading into his WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO scrap with an undefeated Usyk last August, ‘Iron’ Mike admitted: “I never saw Dubois fight. I’m going to stick with the champion,” when predicting how the fight would play out.
Dubois will have no doubt felt upset by the comments, given that he has previously been predicted to be the second coming of Tyson, thanks to his 20 career knockouts in 23 fights thus far. He has also admitted in the past that he was inspired by the likes of Tyson, Lennox Lewis and Muhammad Ali growing up.
While Tyson’s prediction was ultimately correct, the heavyweight battle at the Stadion Wroclaw was not without its controversies, with Dubois claiming that he was robbed during the contest. Dubois looked sharp in the opening round as he felt out Usyk with probing jabs, but the champion started to fire back in the second – catching DDD with a straight left from southpaw.
Usyk showed off his technical capabilities in the third, mixing it up and landing shots from strange angles, before Dubois found a home for his slick double-jab in the fourth. Dubois felt as though referee Luis Pabon got it all wrong early into the fifth however.
The challenger caught his foe with a hard right hook on the belt line, dropping the Ukrainian to the canvas. The shot was controversially ruled as a low-blow, giving Usyk a vital time-out to recover. Dubois ultimately lost the fight in the ninth-round when Usyk caught him flush with a powerful right hand – failing to make the referee’s count back to his feet.
In the aftermath of the contest, Dubois felt hard done by, insisting that his fifth-round knockdown should have stood as coming from a body shot rather than a low-blow. Speaking to BBC Sport, he said: “This wrong needs to be corrected.
“This needs to go further, it needs to be pushed. I should be a world champion right now. It wasn’t justice. It needs to be called out and go further than living this lie. They just cheated out there.” He added: “I definitely want a rematch. Get justice, get a rematch, get something to happen.
“We’ve been working in the gym for weeks and weeks on end on that shot. We pulled it off and that should have been our moment. That should have been a knockout. I’m feeling gutted. It wasn’t a low blow. I felt it land perfectly, smack into his stomach. I know for sure when I land a good shot.”
While Dubois is yet to get his rematch with Usyk, he has stayed active and slowly worked his way back to facing the 22-0 tactician. Usyk became the latest man to hold undisputed heavyweight glory after beating Tyson Fury to hold the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO and WBC titles simultaneously – but he was forced to relinquish his IBF strap in June as he opted to rematch the ‘Gypsy King’ instead of facing Dubois, the IBF’s mandatory title challenger.
Dubois won the interim IBF championship earlier this month after defeating Filip Hrgovic via eighth-round TKO, and he was promoted to IBF champion when Usyk resigned the crown. Dubois’ title fight against Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium this weekend might lead to a rematch with Usyk if he wins.
It will be a difficult task, however, because Joshua is on a four-fight winning streak after losing to Usyk in 2021 and 2022. He is also looking for a rematch with the undefeated great.
