Daniel Dubois rose from his sickbed and stepped straight into mega-millions negotiations to fight Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world.
Talk about landing on your feet!
When Dynamite Daniel was medically advised to withdraw from the defence of his IBF title against Joseph Parker he sustained losses in excess of £7million from Saturday’s bonanza purse plus months of expenditure on his training camp.
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And the cynics started rumouring that he had ducked Parker!
The credible conversations here in the new fight capital of the world concern a shift from the plan for Usyk to fight the winner between Dubois and Parker.
Now big-time boxing’s Saudi paymasters envisage Dubois and Usyk providing the gala opening in October of the next Riyadh Season of sport, culture and entertainment.
At a stroke overnight a worry that Dubois might be derailed, temporarily at least, from his bid for greatness dissipated.
His promoter Frank Warren made this guarded observation: ‘Perversely, this setback with his illness is opening up more tremendous opportunities for Daniel.’
Robert Smith, general secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control who sanction these huge promotions in Saudi Arabia and endorsed the diagnosis of swollen glands says: ‘Daniel could not be allowed to box this weekend but oddly this might make it easier for him to secure the fight with Usyk.’
So it seems. The Ukrainian maestro who became the first undisputed world heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis a quarter century ago came here expecting to watch Dubois and Parker decide which of them he would fight next.
After watching Parker burst the gigantic balloon of Martin Bakole, the last-second replacement for Dubois, Usyk made it clear he would not mind waiting a few months before restoring the IBF belt to his collection and banking another fortune. He said: ‘I am enjoying my rest with my family since beating Tyson (Fury) again (just nine weeks ago).
‘I plan for only two more fights to end my career. Yes, only two. I thought Joseph might win here but if it is to be Daniel next, okay.’
That stands to be their second meeting. Usyk stopped Dubois in the ninth round in Poland in August 2023, leaving Team Dynamite complaining that a body shot which dropped him earlier in the fight should not have been ruled a low blow.
Parker is the most aggrieved party now. When Dubois pulled out on Thursday he found himself obliged to go through another giant road block instead of fighting for a world title.
Bakole did not arrive from his Congo homeland until Saturday morning and although he would be jet-lagged and massively overweight at well over 300 lbs Parker was advised not to accept this problematic, menacing monster as the replacement.
A proud Samoan warrior in his blood-line, this renascent former world champion Kiwi and one of the most likeable boxers in the hard old game said: ‘To hell with it. I’ll deal with him.’ So he did. Landing a warning salvo from the first bell. Absorbing three or four hefty clubbings. Then bringing Bakole down in round two like King Kong from the top of the Empire State Building. With with a right-hand blow to the top of the temple reminiscent of the so-called Phantom Punch with which Muhammad Ali knocked out the fearsome Sonny Liston in their second fight.
Job brilliantly done, Parker said: ‘Right. So where’s my world title fight now?’ Not against London’s Daniel Boy it appears. But he did raise one important question. Will Usyk v Dubois be for the undisputed title or the unification of three of the four championship belts?
The WBC, WBA and IBF are in unison. But the WBO decided at the weekend that the winner of Dubois and Parker will be the mandatory challenger for their belt. If Parker is to be squeezed out of the main equation, his best recourse will be to fight someone else for what would be the vacant WBO belt.
That is the least he deserves, even it hastens the break-up of the undisputed regime.
