Oleksandr Usyk vs. Daniel Dubois; Jared Anderson in action

FIGHT WEEK

Oleksandr Usyk is scheduled to defend his heavyweight titles against Daniel Dubois on Saturday in Poland. Also that day, heavyweight contender Jared Anderson will face Andriy Rudenko in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

OLEKSANDR USYK (20-0, 13 KOs)
VS. DANIEL DUBOIS (19-1, 18 KOs)

• Date: Saturday, Aug. 26
• Time: 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT (main event later in show)
• Where: Stadion Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland
• TV/Stream: DAZN
• Division: Heavyweight (no limit)
• At stake: Usyk’s IBF, WBA and WBO titles
• Odds: Usyk 8-1 favorite (average of multiple outlets)
• Pound-for-pound: Usyk No. 3
• Also on the card: Denys Berinchyk vs. Anthony Yigit, lightweights; Hamzah Sheeraz vs. Dmytro Mytrofanov, middleweights
• Prediction: Usyk UD
• Background: Usyk will return to the ring for the first time since he outpointed Anthony Joshua for a second consecutive time last August. The slick technician from Ukraine, the former 200-pound champion, defeated Joshua by a unanimous decision to become a heavyweight titleholder in September 2021 and then won a split decision in the rematch. He was expected to fight fellow beltholder Tyson Fury for the undisputed championship but they failed to reach an agreement. That fight could happen next year if Usyk beats Dubois and Fury gets past MMA star Francis Ngannou on Oct. 28. Dubois was a highly touted prospect coming out of the amateur ranks. The strapping 25-year-old Londoner won his first 15 pro fights before he was stopped in 10 rounds by another rising heavyweight, Joe Joyce, in November 2020. Dubois couldn’t finish that fight in part because he suffered a broken eye socket. He rebounded to win his next four fights, which set up his first shot at a major title on Saturday. He’s not as skillful or experienced as Usyk but he’ll have a significant natural size advantage. Dubois, who is 6-foot-5, fights at around 240 pounds while the 6-3 Usyk weighed 221-plus for both fights against Joshua.

JARED ANDERSON (15-0, 14 KOs)
VS. ANDRIY RUDENKO (35-6, 21 KOs)

• Date: Saturday, Aug. 26
• Time: 10:30 p.m. ET / 7:30 p.m. PT (main event later in show)
• Where: Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Tulsa, Oklahoma
• TV/Stream: ESPN, ESPN+
• Division: Heavyweight (no limit)
• At stake: No major titles
• Odds: Anderson 20-1 favorite (average of multiple outlets)
• Pound-for-pound: None
• Also on the card: Efe Ajagba vs. Zhan Kossobutskiy
• Prediction: Anderson KO 5
• Background: Anderson is one of the fastest rising heavyweights in the world. The 23-year-old from Toledo, Ohio, has taken out all but his most-recent opponent, veteran Charles Martin, who survived 10 rounds with Anderson but lost a near-shutout decision this past July. Anderson is ranked by all four major sanctioning bodies, No. 5 by the WBO. That means that an opportunity to fight for a major title is on the horizon if he continues to win. Rudenko probably isn’t a serious threat to Anderson. The 39-year-old Ukrainian journeyman has demonstrated toughness, going to the distance with Alexander Povetkin, Agit Kabayel and Zhilei Zhang. However, he lost one-sided decisions in those and other fights and was stopped for the first time against unbeaten countryman Vladyslav Sirenko two fights ago. He rebounded to stop journeyman Bojan Cestic this past January.

ALSO FIGHTING THIS WEEK

WEDNESDAY

• Justin Pauldo vs. Eduardo Estela, lightweights, Plant City, Florida (ProBox TV)

THURSDAY

• Jordan Panthen vs. Todd Manuel, junior middleweights, Costa Mesa, California (FITE)

FRIDAY

• Lorenzo Simpson vs. Vladimir Hernandez, middleweights, Atlanta (DAZN)
• Erick Rosa vs. Orlando Pino, junior flyweights, Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic (Shuan Boxing YouTube)

SATURDAY

• Oscar Collazo vs. Garen Diagan, strawweights (for Collazo’s WBO title), San Juan, Puerto Rico (DAZN)
• Callum Walsh vs. Juan Jose Velasco, junior middleweights, Commerce, California (UFC Fight Pass)