How Oleksandr Usyk knew he would dismantle Daniel Dubois
A month on from Oleksandr Usyk’s destructive win over Daniel Dubois at Wembley, fans are still marveling at the Ukrainian’s achievements and debating where he sits among the all-time greats.
Two punches floored Dubois and made Usyk undisputed heavyweight champion for a second time.
The first was an overhand right that wobbled the Brit and saw him stumble to the canvas. The second — and the one that finished the fight — a left hand as flush as you will see straight on Dubois’ chin that caused his knees to buckle and sent him down again.
He did not get up.
That was Round 5. Ironically, the same round that Dubois finished Anthony Joshua in their clash in September.
But, last month, Usyk took Dubois’ crown as king of Wembley Stadium.
Many ex-fighters and pundits picked Usyk to win, but as with any prediction in the heavyweight division it came with an asterisk: A fight can change in a flash with the swift swing of a KO punch. Especially with someone who hits as hard as Dubois.
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However, Sergey Lapin — Usyk’s childhood best friend and CEO of Ready to Fight, the analytical team that backs the Ukrainian — says he knew exactly how things would unfold, thanks to hours of studying fights and data.
“Our analysis proved to be 200% accurate,” Lapin told ESPN. “We anticipated that Dubois would come forward in the early rounds — we understood exactly how he would behave and which punches he would try to land.”
Along with Usyk, Lapin founded Ready to Fight; a team dedicated to various endeavours in boxing. Chief among those ventures is compiling data on fighters and studying them for hours on end.
Physical attributes such as height, weight and reach and how a fighter uses them to their advantage, as well as punch and jab stats, knockout rate, what style they prefer, if they like to come forward or box more defensively are taken into account.
All of this allows Usyk’s team to find holes in their opponents and decide how they can exploit their weaknesses and gain the upper hand.
Dubois’ fights were played on a continuous loop during Usyk’s camp, with a constant stream of information being fed to those in the inner circle. Discussions around how they can expose Dubois’ weaknesses were constant.
The team then give feedback to Usyk and his trainers so they know what to work on.
“Usyk threw him [Dubois] off with his exceptional technical skills — it’s incredibly difficult to maintain attacking pressure when you simply can’t land your shots,” Lapin added.
Dubois had been vocal about “causing chaos” in the ring, as he did against Joshua. While the Brit had some early success, Usyk was too slick and grew to control the fight after Round 3.
Then, just as he had practiced and rehearsed for hours in the gym, he picked his moment to pounce. He wasn’t necessarily gunning for the knockout, but he had prepared for the opportunity to present itself.
“As for the knockout — indeed, Oleksandr had that possibility in mind,” Lapin said. “The now-famous punch with which Usyk knocked Dubois out wasn’t a coincidence; it was something he had drilled repeatedly in camp.
“But even if that opportunity hadn’t presented itself, Oleksandr had several other scenarios prepared for how to continue and successfully finish the fight.
Of course, Dubois was not a new opponent. Usyk won their first first in 2023in Round 9. The team had ample data and vision to work with.
“We’ve been familiar with Dubois for quite some time, as we had already prepared for the first fight by carefully analyzing how he behaves both in and out of the ring,” Lapin said.
“So we’ve been observing him for many years and have come to understand his tendencies well — which meant we were even better prepared this time around.”