Oleksandr Usyk Vs Daniel Dubois appears to moving forward with Poland as the destination for the fight.
According to Przeglad Sportowy the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight world champion will next defend his titles in the city of Wroclaw on August 26. The date has huge significance with August 24 being Ukraine’s national independence day, the date had originally been set for August 12 but the national holiday is proving too good an opportunity to pass by.
Promoter Alex Krassyuk said at today’s press conference. “We will organise the gala and everything around it almost on the occasion of a national holiday. We want to celebrate the independence of Ukrainian and Polish brotherhood.”
Poland has seen an influx of Ukrainian refugees fleeing their war torn country, it is estimated 8 million Ukrainian’s have crossed the border since the war with Russia began last year. Many Ukrainian national sports teams are now based in neighbouring Poland, it seems only fitting for the nation’s heavyweight hero to fight there this summer too.
Today in the Polish capital of Warsaw, Usyk and his team had a meeting with reporters to kick start the promotion for the upcoming heavyweight clash. He was joined by promoter Alex Krassyuk, Polish Minister of Sport Kamil Bortniczuk and Polish boxing promoter Andrzej Wasilewski to discuss their plans to bring the historic fight to the central European nation.
“I am very happy to be back in Poland. It will be a great celebration. Not just sport, but brotherhood. For all that Poles have been doing for us since the beginning of the war. We will give people joy and positive emotions.” said Usyk.
The proposed venue is the Stadion Wroclaw, a 44,105 seater football stadium built in 2011. Usyk’s promoter K2 Promotions bid 8 million US dollars to stage the second defense of his heavyweight titles, the gate will obviously prove important to recoup that figure. Interestingly the stadium was opened with a WBC heavyweight world title fight between Vitali Klitschko and Tomasz Adamek. The stadium regularly plays host to the Polish national football team and his home to football team Slash Wroclaw.
“We want to create something more. There are many Ukrainians living in Poland. They work and live here. Thank you for your support to the Poles, we will try to create an event full of love and brotherhood between the countries.” Krassyuk added in today’s press conference.
