Russ Anber Ranks Oleksandr Usyk Among Top 3 Fighters He Has Worked With

Usyk is now 38 years old. Ahead of his rematch with Dubois, many notable names were leaning toward Dubois. The Ukrainian, being eleven years older than the inform Dubois, combined with the Englishman’s impressive knockout victory against Anthony Joshua, had brought doubt as to whether he could maintain his supremacy. Shane Mosley told me prior to the bout, “I like Dubois in this fight.”

“I don’t know how long he’s got left,” Anber explained. “Whenever I talk about the age of a fighter, you can always say a number. But to me, there are fighters who are in their late twenties who have aged, and you can see it in their fights. They are not as quick, they don’t do things the same as the way they did, they don’t throw as many punches as they did, their output isn’t the same. Then you can say that you are seeing a fighter change before your eyes. There hasn’t been any indication whatsoever from Usyk that there has been any aging inside the ring.

“For me, in fact, there has been a rejuvenation. If you look at the second fight with Tyson Fury, he put on an even more dominant performance than in the first fight. None of his fights have ever indicated that age was an issue. If I’m fighting Usyk, I’m not worrying about whether he is old enough or not.”

It is far from being determined when and against whom Usyk will square off next. The WBO has ordered that the Ukrainian face mandatory challenger Joseph Parker. Both parties have 30 days to agree on a deal until purse bids are ordered.

New Zealand’s Parker (36-3, 24 KOs) comes off a second-round stoppage win against Martin Bakole in February. He had previously defeated Zhilei Zhang and Deontay Wilder. Parker did have a short run as WBO heavyweight champion between 2016 and 2018, claiming the vacant title with a majority-decision victory over Andy Ruiz. He would defend his belt against Razvan Cojanu and Hughie Fury until being defeated by Anthony Joshua in Cardiff.