{"id":494464,"date":"2025-07-18T16:01:24","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T20:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/?post_type=news&#038;p=494464"},"modified":"2025-07-18T16:01:50","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T20:01:50","slug":"usyk-plays-mind-games-at-weigh-in-ahead-of-dubois-eematch-at-wembley","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/usyk-plays-mind-games-at-weigh-in-ahead-of-dubois-eematch-at-wembley\/","title":{"rendered":"Usyk plays mind games at weigh-in ahead of Dubois rematch at Wembley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Oleksandr Usyk made one final psychological play ahead of his heavyweight title rematch with Daniel Dubois, stepping in front of the Briton during their weigh-in at BoxPark Wembley to draw the spotlight in front of a roaring crowd.<\/p>\n<p>Dubois weighed in at 17 stone 6 pounds (244 lbs), while Usyk came in at a career-heaviest 16 stone 3 pounds (227 lbs) ahead of Saturday\u2019s undisputed heavyweight clash at Wembley Stadium.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The final stare. No flinch. No fear.<\/p>\n<p>Usyk and Dubois locked eyes during the official face-off \u2014<br \/>\na moment heavier than any punch.<\/p>\n<p>The calm before the chaos. The stillness before the storm.<br \/>\nTomorrow, the talking ends. The fighting begins.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udccdJuly 19 | Wembley Stadium\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/O7Kxdmb9GC\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/O7Kxdmb9GC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 READY TO FIGHT (@RTFigh_com) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RTFigh_com\/status\/1946240475926851776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">July 18, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The face-off was intense but brief. After posing for cameras, the fighters turned toward the crowd\u2014only for Usyk to step forward, flexing and raising his arms to block Dubois from view. When Dubois attempted to reclaim his space, Usyk did it again, prompting a wave of cheers and visibly frustrating the 27-year-old challenger, who walked off shaking his head.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m locked in, focused and I can&#8217;t wait,&#8221; said Dubois. &#8220;I&#8217;m going to win by any means necessary.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Oleksandr Usyk weighs in 16 pounds lighter than Daniel Dubois \ud83e\udd4a \u2696\ufe0f<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UsykDubois2?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#UsykDubois2<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2DTxZEYtrO\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/2DTxZEYtrO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MMAFighting\/status\/1946231045520810203?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">July 18, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Usyk, who holds the WBA (Super), WBO, and WBC titles, remains undefeated in 23 professional bouts. He already holds a ninth-round stoppage win over Dubois from their first meeting in August 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Now, nearly a year later, Usyk is eyeing a second undisputed crown and another statement victory, this time in front of a massive Wembley crowd. &#8220;It&#8217;s a great opportunity for my people and my country. See you tomorrow,&#8221; said the 38-year-old Ukrainian before leaving the stage to thunderous applause.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oleksandr Usyk made one final psychological play ahead of his heavyweight title rematch with Daniel Dubois, stepping in front of the Briton during [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":494465,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[18144,23743,21105,17309],"news_category":[20045,16715],"gn_keywords":[18146,25934,21106,18145,25943],"acf":{"news_source":"","link_picture":"","announce":"The Ukrainian gave the press some show hours before the much-anticipated fight in London","video":[]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/494464"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494464"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/494464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":494467,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/494464\/revisions\/494467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494464"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=494464"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=494464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}