When Daniel Dubois and Oleksandr Usyk came face to face in the centre of London’s Wembley Stadium recently, a prolonged staredown gave photographers and camera crews ample opportunity to shoot footage ahead of their upcoming undisputed heavyweight title fight.

The moment also gave Dubois the perfect chance to set the tone ahead of the July 19 clash.

IBF titleholder, Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs), held Usyk’s gaze and then gave The Ring, WBC, WBA and IBF champion a solid shove in the chest.

If any other fighter had carried out the stunt it would be written off as a piece of basic pre-fight publicity, but since being beaten by Usyk (23-0, 14 KOs) in August 2023, making his presence felt during the build-up to his fights has become a key part of Dubois’ approach.

The once self-contained Londoner has always been a reluctant talker but broke character when he told outspoken New Yorker, Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller, that he would “beat him like he was his daddy” before their fight in December 2023.

Dubois, ranked at No. 2 by The Ring, was as good as his word and stopped Miller in the 10th and final round.

He famously got Filip Hrgovic’s attention by calling him the worst name imaginable during a roundtable discussion and then bullied the Croatian to an eighth-round defeat.

Last year, Dubois refused to back down when two-time unified champion, Anthony Joshua tried to impose himself during the build-up to their IBF heavyweight title fight at Wembley Stadium. In September, Dubois knocked out Joshua in the fifth round of a dramatic fight.

Dubois insists that pushing Usyk was a spur-of-the-moment incident rather than a way of trying to assert himself.

“It was playful,” he laughed during an interview with Queensberry. “There wasn’t really nothing in it. It’s one of them things that happens in boxing and big fights like this where everything is on the line. I’m just I'm looking forward to it.

“I think I've shown in my last three fights that I'm totally different. I'm more confident. I trust and believe myself more and whatever but I’m ready ready for it.”

The controversial borderline low blow that caused Usyk to drop to the floor in the fifth of the first fight has dominated the narrative ahead of the rematch, but it also has overshadowed that Usyk controlled the action before and after the incident and broke Dubois down mentally and physically, persuading him to take a knee in the ninth.

Dubois may have taken his own game to a new level since the first fight, but Usyk hasn’t exactly dropped off the edge of a cliff. The Ukrainian may not have been as active as Dubois but he has gone on to prove himself the best heavyweight of his generation.

In May 2024 he beat Tyson Fury to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the 21st century and repeated his victory in a December rematch.

Dubois learned plenty from sharing the ring with Usyk and will approach the rematch with the confidence of a champion, but it will take more than self-belief and power to solve the technical problems he encountered first time around.

Dubois is striking the right balance between confidence and realism and accepts that beating Usyk to become the undisputed champion is the toughest task of his career.

“I think he's the best boxer [he has faced]. I think his record shows that he's a top, top level guy, a top level operator,” he said.

“You can’t take nothing away from him, but at this level they're all good so I just need to be on my A-game. Focus, get right and I'll just I'll go through him. I’ll do the business.”