David Haye has backed Daniel Dubois to shock the world and defeat Oleksandr Usyk in their heavyweight world title clash this weekend.
Usyk enters Saturday’s bout in Wroclaw, Poland, as the heavy favourite, and victory for the Ukrainian could pave the way for an undisputed clash with Tyson Fury sometime next year.
However, Dubois carries explosive knockout power, having gone the distance just once in his 19-fight professional career, with his trainer Don Charles telling Mail Sport this week that Dubois has the power to finish the undefeated champion.
In a post on social media, Haye admitted that the odds are stacked against Dubois but he still possesses the ability to cause a famous upset.
‘You got Daniel Dubois trying to do what many fans view as a mission impossible, going in against Oleksandr Usyk, the unified heavyweight champion of the world, a man who’s shown very, very few chinks in his armor, but he’s going to have to do the unthinkable.’
Daniel Dubois has been backed to cause an upset against Oleksandr Usyk in Poland this week
Haye feels Dubois needs to use his greater size to take the fight to Usyk and wear him down
‘He’s [Dubois] going to have to really put the heat on Usyk, use his superior frame, his size, his youth, and his freshnes. Usyk had a long amateur career, many, many tough cruiserweight fights, and he’s had some tough heavyweight fights.
‘He’s going to need to do something very special, Daniel Dubois, but we need to get behind him. He’s a young man who has everything to gain and nothing to lose.
‘No one’s expecting anything out of him, but deep in his heart; he knows this is his opportunity.
‘So we really got to back our man. He’s young, he’s fresh, he’s hungry, and Usyk is a wizard; he’s a magician in there, but he doesn’t want to allow Usyk to do his tricks.’
The former two-weight world champion added that Dubois may need to stifle Usyk’s technical prowess by any means necessary in order to be able to impose his physical advantages on the defending champion.
Usyk has shown that his technical ability has been enough to overcome size disparities in past
‘He just needs to knock the cards out of his hand, grab him, and get points deducted if needs be, but he’s got a drag Usyk into a very, very uncomfortable situation.
‘He can do it. He’s got the physical capability to do it. He’s got the punch power to do it. It’s going to be a hard, hard night, but it’s going to be a fantastic night.’
Much like Usyk, Haye began his career in the cruiserweight ranks and captured multiple world titles in the division before moving up to heavyweight in 2008.
The 42-year-old would go on to defeat Nikolai Valuev to win the WBA heavyweight title, defending the belt twice before being losing the belt in a title unification bout with Wladimir Klitschko in 2011.