Usyk disagrees with Dubois' age claims

There was no shove, just a frozen glare that drew an audible “This is intense, I like this” from on-looker Joseph Parker as Oleksandr Usyk locked eyes with Daniel Dubois at Wednesday’s final press conference. The undisputed champion and his IBF-belt rival stood stock-still, each man fresh from grueling camps and unwilling to blink two days out from their Riyadh rematch for every heavyweight title.

Asked if Dubois had rattled him, the 38-year-old Usyk shrugged: “No, no, no. Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t feel.” Dubois pounced on the age angle, branding himself “a young lion” ready to make Usyk “feel every second” of those 38 years and dismissing reports of a sizeable Canelo Álvarez wager on the champion. “He’s going to lose his money,” the Londoner muttered. “I’m just focused now. Let’s get it on.”

Watch Usyk vs. Dubois 2 face-off: Watch

The most pointed exchange came between the corners. Usyk’s manager Egis Klimas claimed Dubois is “the same fighter” who was stopped in Poland two years ago - “the body may change, but the mind and its weaknesses remain.” Trainer Don Charles fired back: “He must have been sleeping for the last three fights Daniel has had. Can somebody please wake him up?” Klimas, deadpan, countered: “While I was sleeping, Oleksandr beat Tyson Fury twice.”

Usyk kept the tone respectful: “I respect this young guy - he is motivated, but I am too. I’m not an old guy. Thirty-eight is not old.” Dubois, meanwhile, repeated the camp mantra: “Chaos.” He insists those stoppages of Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic and Anthony Joshua prove he has found a new level and will seize Saturday’s moment.

With talk done and tempers in check, the heavyweight summit now waits for fists rather than rhetoric. If Dubois can impose his promised chaos, Father Time may indeed come knocking; if Usyk’s ageless craft prevails, the Ukrainian will reinforce his place as boxing’s most complete champion.