Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois meet again this Saturday: Does anyone care?

The buzz around the heavyweight rematch between champion Oleksandr Usyk and IBF titleholder Daniel Dubois has been…buss less.

They’re meeting this Saturday at Wembley Stadium in London, England.

Once upon a time, a heavyweight showdown, especially if Muhammad Ali or, to a lesser extent, Mike Tyson, were fighting, was a major event.

When Ali met Joe Frazier on March 8th, 1971, the world stopped.

Ali was an international superstar, famous and controversial, equally loved and loathed by some.

After upsetting monstrous George Foreman, the people’s champ fought often, to the tune of four times each in 1975 and 76.

Four fights in one year? Not nowadays.

This version of Ali was clearly past his prime, no longer the dancing master, but an older, wiser version of himself.

Television broadcast several of his fights or showed them on tape delay.

It was a glorious time to be a boxing fan, but that was then.

The now is a mixture of too many titleholders, too much disappointment, and a talent pool of limited ability.

The top dog is Usyk, and he IS talented. And driven. And dedicated – the hardest worker of them all.

It’s paid off in droves.

Usyk is undefeated in 23 fights, scoring 14 knockouts. He once held the cruiserweight title, moving up to the heavyweight division six years ago. He carved his way through the bigger guys, defeating Derek Chisora, Anthony Joshua twice, and Dubois.

His biggest fights were against Tyson Fury, who dismissed Usyk as a middleweight. They fought two times, with Usyk getting the nod on both occasions.

Fury will go to his grave saying he won.

He didn’t. I had Usyk winning both fights…barely. Their styles were a study in contrasts. Fury, the humongous heavyweight, is light on his feet and cagey. Usyk, the consummate pro – working up and down, stealing rounds.

A huge Usyk left turned Fury into a drunken sailor in round nine of their first match.

No such fireworks in the rematch, but it was again the more controlled and consistent Usyk who edged it.

Usyk is ready to become the undisputed champion for a second time.

“I’m grateful to God for the opportunity to once again fight for the undisputed championship,” said Usyk several weeks ago. “Thank you, Daniel, for taking care of my IBF belt – now I want it back.”

Daniel Dubois, like Usyk, has no nickname. I think of him as an enigma, but in a good way. Think Dubois number one, and number two. Number one lost twice in his career, but those losses defined him for a while.

Joe Joyce fractured his eye socket in 2020.

Three years later, he fought Usyk, losing almost every round before taking a knee and not rising. Critics questioned his heart.

Dubois number two added Don Charles in his corner and rallied to defeat Jarrell Miller.

Against cocky Flip Hergovic, Dubois absorbed right hand after right hand, but rallied to win by stoppage. The loss shocked Hergovic.

Nobody was questioning Dubois’ heart anymore.

In his fight against Usyk, he landed a shot to the body that some said was illegal, while others said it was legal.

“I got through with that shot it was like a punch from the Gods,” said Dubois.

Dubois is confident he can land more body shots in the rematch.

“You’ve seen him in the past get hurt to the body, but I’m not going to go crazy on it because everyone’s talking about a body shot. They’ll be expecting that. So, I’ve just got to mix it up, I guess.”

Yes, mixing it up is better than trying to outbox Usyk.

Buzz or not, this is a good fight.