LONDON, England — Oleksandr Usyk has never put a foot wrong in a world championship rematch, but recent history tells us that it is not always a foregone conclusion when two heavyweights meet for a second time — particularly down the line.

The Ukrainian idol, who holds The Ring, WBA, WBO and WBC belts, has already seen off Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua twice each, with neither Englishman able to reverse their fortunes after losing on points in the first fight.

Saturday on DAZN (12:30 p.m. ET, 5:30 BST, $59.99), Usyk faces his third Brit in a rematch for the world heavyweight titles, with Daniel Dubois bringing his IBF strap to the party at Wembley Stadium having already fallen at the hands of the southpaw from Crimea.

That was in August 2023, when Usyk recovered from a controversial low blow which floored him in the fifth round, to turn the fight on its head and win by stoppage, via a perfectly timed jab, early in the ninth.

But what does recent history tell us about the form book in heavyweight rematches and what does it tell us about Dubois’ chances? There is no doubting that the Londoner has improved since that night, and posted the three best wins of his career in the interim, while Usyk has beaten Fury twice and moved two years closer to his 40th birthday.

The difference against Joshua and Fury is that Usyk beat them in back-to-back fights, giving them no chance to rebuild away from his often peerless skillset. Dubois, meanwhile, has gone away, stopped Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic and also Joshua — which earned him that IBF belt in the process.

Joshua himself has experience of losing by stoppage for the world heavyweight title, when he was stunned by Andy Ruiz in June 2019, before he turned the tables and reclaimed the belts on points in a rematch six months later.

Fury, too, had seemed a dab hand at heavyweight rematches. Before reaching world-title level he beat John McDermott and Derek Chisora twice. Once he won the belts, he famously went 2-0-1 against Deontay Wilder, stopping him inside the distance twice. He went on to beat Chisora a third time, too. Interestingly, after being dropped twice in his draw against Wilder in December 2018, he went and recorded a pair of other wins — against Tom Schwarz and Otto Wallin — before steamrolling the Bronze Bomber in their second fight in February 2020.

The man he knocked off top spot, Wladimir Klitschko, is also an interesting case in point. It is worth noting he went nowhere near either Ross Puritty or Corrie Sanders after they knocked him out but he did have a rematch with Lamon Brewster.

"Relentless" Brewster stopped him in the fifth round of their clash for the vacant WBO heavyweight title in April 2004, but when they met in Cologne three years and six fights later, Klitschko turned that result on its head and won via sixth-round retirement

Big Wlad also beat Samuel Peter twice, five years apart, and Chris Byrd in world title fights in 2000, via UD, and in 2006 via seventh-round stoppage.

Klitschko’s elder brother, Vitali, who incidentally stopped Puritty and Sanders himself, never actually had a world heavyweight rematch. The man who inflicted the final defeat of his career, Lennox Lewis, definitely did.

And perhaps Dubois, another 6-foot-5 puncher born in London, should take note.

Lewis famously flipped his stunning April 2001 defeat to Hasim Rahman on its head before the year was out. Rahman had knocked out Lewis in the fifth round of their South Africa clash, but after making what he later described as "a few small adjustments," Lewis had his revenge in the fourth round of their Las Vegas fight in November.

But that win, which came just 18 months before the end of his career, was only one example of his ability to get things right second time around. Although many people thought he beat Evander Holyfield in their first fight, in March 1999, it was scored a draw. Eight months later? Lewis won clearly via UD.

Lewis also was beaten by Oliver McCall in September 1994, losing his WBC heavyweight title as a result of the second-round stoppage. But away Lewis went and rebuilt, winning four on the spin, before stopping a clearly distressed Atomic Bull in their rematch in '97.

Holyfield, like Usyk a former cruiserweight champion, had a mixed bag in rematches. As well as that defeat to Lewis, he had a win, lose and draw against John Ruiz while also going 1-2 in his epic three-fight series with Riddick Bowe. Although one man who simply could not beat The Real Deal was Mike Tyson, who lost to him via 11th-round stoppage in November 1996 before chomping his way to a third-round DQ in their immediate rematch seven months later.

On the subject of Bowe — and DQs for that matter — "Big Daddy" won back-to-back fights against Andrew Golota in the space of five months in 1996, both via disqualification.

A couple of decades earlier, Muhammad Ali won his final world heavyweight title in a rematch with "Neon" Leon Spinks, who had produced a stunning upset over via split decision in Las Vegas in February 1978 to claim the WBA and WBC titles.

Spinks was stripped of that WBC belt as he decided to head into an immediate rematch instead of fighting their No. 1 contender Ken Norton. Ali, then 36 years old, turned the result on its head at the Louisiana Superdome on Sept. 15, 1978 to become history’s first three-time world heavyweight champion.

It is an old adage that in heavyweight boxing, it can all change with one punch but history suggests Dubois’ chances of getting it right a second time will have improved hugely in the time between these two encounters. It seems as if, on the whole, the better boxer wins the rematch, with clever skills and thorough adjustments the key to diverting the course of the division.

But with 21 KOs in 22 wins, Dubois also will be backing himself to do exactly that with another 12 rounds to land something meaningful — and this time above the belt.