Daniel Dubois’s preparation for his heavyweight title fight with Oleksandr Usyk took a major hit this week, when his Ryanair flight to Poland was cancelled.
Dubois is set to challenge Usyk for the unified heavyweight belts in Wroclaw on Saturday, and he arrived in the city 24 hours later than planned after his flight from Stansted was among those cancelled on Sunday (20 August).
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The Briton was forced to take a cab ride, costing £280, to Heathrow, where he slept in an airport hotel before flying via Dusseldorf on Monday morning.
“It was chaos when we got to Stansted,” Dubois told reporters on Thursday (24 August). “Ryanair... for f***’s sake! There was an evacuation of the departures hall going on.
“People were screaming and fainting, and there were some fights going on. Mad, crazy. We had to get out. My dad for one couldn’t stand it.
“We were all tired when we got here, having missed a day’s preparations, but I got a good night’s sleep and we’re back on track now.”
Dubois, 25, is set for the toughest test of his career when he challenges Usyk at the Tarczynski Arena. The Ukrainian is unbeaten as a professional and previously reigned as the only undisputed cruiserweight champion of the four-belt era. Prior to that, the 36-year-old won Olympic gold at the 2012 Games in London.
Dubois, meanwhile, will be counting on his knockout power, which has seen him secure 18 of his 19 wins via knockout. The sole loss of his pro career came in 2020, when he suffered a fractured eye socket in a TKO loss to Joe Joyce.
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