Daniel Dubois has brushed off a reported $500,000 wager placed against him by Canelo Álvarez, insisting the superstar gambler is backing the wrong man ahead of Saturday night’s undisputed heavyweight title showdown at Wembley Stadium. “He’s going to lose his money,” Dubois said, adding that outside noise means nothing as he narrows his focus on fight night.
At 27 and wearing the IBF crown, Dubois cast the rematch with Oleksandr Usyk as the point at which he seizes authorship of his own story. The first meeting, he insisted, is behind him. Training, he said, has gone exactly to plan: “I’ve prepared right. I’m on a different level now.” He promised a “demolition job,” declaring himself hungry, ready, and intent on taking every belt.
Dubois is 11 years younger than Usyk, who holds the WBA, WBC and WBO titles, and he leaned into the generational contrast. Calling himself a “young lion,” he vowed to “take over” and “execute” the older champion. Usyk, 38, laughed off any suggestion that age will blunt him. “I’m not an old guy,” he replied with trademark mischief, while also acknowledging the emotional weight he carries as a figure of inspiration to his war‑torn homeland. Every fight, he said, now resonates for the soldiers and people he represents.
Mind games flared only briefly. Dubois’s trainer, Don Charles, who once needled Usyk’s faith, kept it restrained: the talking is done, tune in for history. Usyk volleyed back with a cryptic line “Don’t push the horses” which bounced around the stage in translation as the camps traded puzzled grins. Asked directly whether he expects a stoppage victory, Usyk was succinct: yes.
The closing face‑off passed without theatrics beyond a prolonged stare, a chant coaxed by Dubois, and Usyk’s raised three‑finger salute, a silent reminder of the belts he intends to keep and the legacy he continues to build. However the betting lines move, the stakes are clear: youth versus experience, vengeance versus validation, and perhaps, for Álvarez, a lighter wallet.
Conversation around whether Dubois’s renewed confidence has unsettled Usyk drew only a bemused shrug from the champion, who needed the word “rattled” explained before dismissing it outright. Their August 2023 encounter ended badly for Dubois; he insists the lessons are banked. Usyk, who has already stood as undisputed at both cruiserweight and heavyweight, now targets a third crowning as the division attempts to tidy its title picture.
