Queensberry Promotion’s George Warren, son of hall of fame promoter Frank Warren, revealed on the BT Sport telecast for Davies-Baluta on Saturday night that WBA (Regular) Heavyweight titleist, Britain’s Daniel Dubois (18-1, 17 KOs) is now officially the WBA mandatory challenger for unified champion, Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs).
Daniel Dubois Mandatory for Usyk’s WBA Title
25-year-old Dubois seized his secondary title belt in June when he travelled to Miami and demolished the previous champion, Trevor Bryan, inflicting a first defeat on the American via a fourth-round stoppage.
Dubois now defends his title against South Africa’s Kevin Lerena (28-1, 14 KOs) as the chief support to the trilogy contest between Tyson Fury and Derek Chisora at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, December 3 live on BT Sport Box Office (UK & RoI) and ESPN+ (U.S.).
Lerena is a former IBO world cruiserweight champion, making six defences of the title before moving up to heavyweight where he has recorded victories over Patrick Ferguson, Bogdan Dinu and Mariusz Wach, winning the WBA and IBO Intercontinental titles in the process.
Dubois was supposed to face the winner of a WBA eliminator clash between Michael Hunter and Hughie Fury to determine the mandatory challenger for Usyk but with several pullouts from Fury, that fight is not indefinitely postponed and Dubois has been immediately elevated to mandatory challenger status.
Croatia’s Filip Hrgovic is the #1 contender with the IBF, a mandatory that was called last weekend and could disrupt an undisputed bout between Fury and Usyk. Whilst Frank Warren stable mate and ex-Dubois foe Joe Joyce is the WBO’s highest-rated challenger.
