The heavyweight championship rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois has been rescheduled to a new date. The pair, originally reported to battle it out on July 12, is now set to square off a week later, on July 19. The clash, with all four major belts on the line, is expected to take place at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
Usyk (23-0, 14 KOs) of Ukraine and Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) of the UK first met in August 2023 in Wroclaw, Poland. The contest ended in favor of Usyk, who earned the win by knockout in the ninth round, securing two knockdowns in the eighth and ninth rounds.
In the fifth round, Dubois landed a punch that was ruled a low blow, sending Usyk to the canvas. Once the latter got back up on his feet and recovered, he went on to claim victory and retain his unified WBA, WBO, and IBF straps. Dubois denied that the punch landed below the belt.
In 2024, Oleksandr Usyk won two fights against Tyson Fury to become the undisputed heavyweight champion by split decision last May, and retained the unified WBA, WBC, and WBO belts by unanimous decision last December in a rematch. The 38-year-old southpaw from Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine vacated the IBF strap ahead of Dubois’ fight against Anthony Joshua last September.
After their first fight with Usyk, Daniel Dubois got back in the win column, stopping Jarrell Miller in the 10th round in late 2023. The following June, the 27-year-old Londoner TKO’d Filip Hrgovic in the eighth round to take the interim IBF belt.
Dubois dominated Joshua, taking the victory by knockout in the fifth round to become the new full IBF titleholder. In his next fight in February, the newly-crowned champion was expected to defend his belt against Joseph Parker, but the bout fell through after he fell ill.
As reported by The Ring, the planned Usyk vs Dubois rematch date was changed due to another card set to be held on July 12, with Newark’s Shakur Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs) defending his WBC lightweight title against Mexico’s unbeaten interim champion William Zepeda (33-0, 27 KOs).
The event, expected to take place at a venue in New York, also features former title challengers Edgar Berlanga (23-1, 18 KOs) of Brooklyn and Hamzah Sheeraz (21-0-1, 17 KOs) of the UK in a WBC super middleweight title eliminator. Plus, Dominican Alberto Puello (24-0, 10 KOs) defends his WBC super lightweight belt against former 140-pound champion Subriel Matias (22-2, 22 KOs) of Puerto Rico.
Additionally, former two-weight champion David Morrell (11-1, 9 KOs) of Cuba meets Imam Khataev (10-0, 9 KOs) at light heavyweight.