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Tony Bellew says Daniel Dubois must 'face his demons' against Oleksandr Usyk
Tony Bellew thinks Daniel Dubois must face his demons in his undisputed bout with Oleksandr Usyk at Wembley on July 19.
Having had a turbulent career to date, losing to Joe Joyce in 2020, at only 23 years old, and getting stopped by Usyk in their first encounter after the controversial low blow - Bellew believes Dubois will need to change his psychological approach in the rematch.
Bellew said: “Daniel Dubois has got a lot of demons to revisit and he’s going to revisit them I this fight. I think he is in a different place mentally now than he was for the first fight.”
He continued: “I don’t want to say he’s grown up and matured because he is the same fighter as he was, it’s just his mental approach is going to have to be different."
Comparing him to Usyk, Bellew said that the Ukrainian has ticked every box he has ever been asked to tick without problem. Conversely, Dubois has faced almost all the adversity a boxer can face – and he is only 27.
The former WBC cruiserweight champion thinks this could be to Dubois’s advantage, though, as he has been forced to claw his way back from some dark places, and this could give him the mental edge on fight night.
Bellew said: “Daniel Dubois hasn’t [previously ticked all the boxes], but recently he has. We've seen him do the wrong things in the past. We’ve seen him take a knee. The best way to explain Daniel Dubois is that he is a 27-year-old veteran”
He added: “He’s experienced everything boxing can throw at him. He’s been dropped. He’s been down. He’s been stopped. And he’s found a way back and is now on the back of his best ever victories – he is on his best ever run – the victory against AJ [Anthony Joshua] was something else.”
Watch Usyk versus Dubois 2 live and exclusive on DAZN PPV on Saturday, July 19 for £24.99 UK; $59.99 US; $19.99/equivalent ROW. Buy the PPV now here.
