Daniel Dubois and his team are making a case for why he should be Oleksandr Usyk's next opponent. This comes after the WBO ordered Usyk to face Joseph Parker instead.
Dubois has been on a roll lately. He stopped Jarrell Miller and then Filip Hrgovic to win the IBF Heavyweight World Championship. He even knocked out Anthony Joshua in the fifth round to defend his title at Wembley Stadium. But Dubois hit a snag in February when he got sick and had to cancel a voluntary defense against Parker.
The WBO stepped in and told Usyk to fight Parker next. Parker won his fight against Martin Bakole with a second-round knockout on the night he was supposed to face Dubois.
Don Charles, Dubois' coach, isn't happy about this. He told FightHub TV:
"People are missing a lot of points here, it's almost as if everyone is feeling sorry for Parker. I've been in the same situation before, but these things happen. It was a voluntary defence, we volunteered to fight Parker."
Charles thinks Dubois should get the Usyk fight. He says Dubois has "the other chip that makes up the jigsaw" and that the Parker fight was just voluntary, not mandatory.
Usyk wants to fight Dubois too. He's trying to become a two-time undisputed heavyweight champion after holding all four belts at cruiserweight.
There might be a way out of this mess. They could try to make a step-aside deal with Parker, but that's not certain. Or Usyk could drop the WBO belt, but that's just one possibility.
The heavyweight division is heating up, and all eyes are on what happens next with Usyk, Dubois, and Parker.
