Egis Klimas, the manager of Oleksandr Usyk, believes the Ukranian’s upcoming fight with mandatory challenger Daniel Dubois will create a pathway for Usyk to challenge Tyson Fury, which would see all the proverbial marbles at heavyweight finally be contested following protracted public negotiations earlier this year for a proposed April 29th encounter at Wembley Stadium, London.
Those talks ultimately collapsed due to financials regarding any possible rematches not being able to be agreed upon.
This left Usyk very little option but to obligate his mandatory challenger, Daniel Dubois. Dubois would earn his position following his win over Trevor Bryan in the summer of 2022 and solidified his position with a third-round knockout of Kevin Lerena last December.
However, speaking at today’s press conference, Klimas reiterated that Dubois would be respected and not overlooked despite Usyk’s ambitions to face Fury once and for all and to finally see an undisputed world heavyweight champion, the first since Lennox Lewis.
“I am proud to be in this beautiful country of Poland, next to one of my favourite cities in Lithuania, where I was born. This is my neighbour country. I am proud to represent one of the best fighters in the world. We do not disregard Daniel Dubois. Don’t think we think it’s going to be a walk in the park. We know that he is big, strong, he can hit. We are fully prepared.
“We have a future to unify the titles. This fight will take us to one of the greatest fights in the history of boxing, but we don’t lose sight of the fact that we’re betting on everything right now. We are focused on Daniel Dubois. All we see is Daniel Dubois. We have breakfast thinking about him. We go to sleep thinking about him. Everything is about him. On August 26, Usyk will show everything.”
If Usyk is successful against Dubois, Klimas will be seeking to return to the negotiating table with Fury despite saying that he “does not have many pleasant memories” following his previous attempts to secure a contest with Fury on behalf of Usyk when speaking to Xsport.ua
“We did not agree with Fury. We had very long negotiations, we tried to organize a duel. Since that didn’t work out, so we now need to do a mandatory defence through the WBA, and then we go further according to the plan. We’re not going to wait for Fury to wake up and want a fight or anything.
“If now everything goes according to plan with Dubois, by the end of the year or at the beginning of the next, we are ready to go into the ring with Tyson.
“Not very pleasant memories of these negotiations - and the fight with Fury, and the fight with Dubois. However, we see the result - there is a press conference, the fight is planned. God forbid, the guys will go through training without injuries and on August 26, they will meet in the ring.”
