Frank Warren Claims Joseph Parker Is Oleksandr Usyk’s Next Opponent, Despite Usyk’s Undecided Future

Promoter Frank Warren says undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs) will be defending next against his WBO mandatory challenger Joseph Parker, following his fifth-round knockout win over IBF champ Daniel Dubois (22-3, 21 KOs) on Saturday night at Wembley Stadium in London.

Parker WBO Ordered

Warren, who promotes Parker, says the WBO has already ordered the title defense to be next. However, Usyk hasn’t said whether he’ll fight Parker, and you have to suspect that he’ll not be interested in this fight because it would be a big step backward for him from the opposition he’s been facing.

Usyk destroyed the hapless Dubois tonight, knocking him down twice in the fifth round. It looked like Dubois could have gotten up after the second knockdown, but instead stayed down and was counted out by referee Michel Griffin at the 1:52 mark.

Usyk Destroys Hapless Dubois

“It wasn’t one-sided. At the end it was. I think Daniel gave a good account of himself in a couple of the rounds. But he’s an unbelievable fighter, Usyk, a modern-day great,” said promoter Frank Warren to BoxNation, reacting to his fighter, Daniel Dubois, getting knocked out by Oleksandr Usyk.

I hate to break this to Frank, but this WAS a one-sided fight tonight. Dubois didn’t win a round and looked like he was just throwing wildly, hoping to get lucky. He never got close to winning any of the rounds.

“Daniel, I hope he can learn from it. I was in the corner, telling him to use his jab. When he was doubling his jab and letting his right hand go, he was having some success. It wasn’t his night,” said Warren.

If Dubois was going to learn from a loss, he’d have done it the last time Usyk knocked him out in 2023. Tonight, Daniel looked just as bad, showing no improvement in his game at all. He was actually worse tonight because he was fighting more recklessly due to the chip he had on his shoulder over the last time Usyk knocked him out. Dubois just isn’t capable of thinking.

Warren’s Next Fight Declaration

“We’ll fight out. His next fight will be against Joseph Parker,” said Warren when asked if Usyk is ‘unbeatable.’

No, it won’t, Frank. Usyk will NOT waste his time fighting that loss, Parker. Usyk will likely fight Tyson Fury next unless the ‘Gypsy King’ was full of hot air when he was babbling about coming back in 2026 to fight him again. That’s a way more interesting fight for Usyk than Parker, who can’t sell.

“I hope so. He’s got to learn from it. If he doesn’t learn from it, he won’t come again,” said Warren when asked if Dubois can come back from this defeat. It’s up to him. It was a tough night or him. He got up at 10. He wasn’t poleaxed,” said Warren when asked if Dubois wiill be okay after this brutal knockout.

At 27, Dubois isn’t going to learn from this loss because he lacks the ring IQ to improve. Moreover, he doesn’t have a great trainer. If Don Charles is teaching him junk, that’s what’s going to come out of him. He’s likely to stick it out with Charles until the bitter end, which won’t be too much longer if he keeps getting beaten like this.

“The WBO have already called it, haven’t they? They already called it before the fight,” said Warren on whether Parker will be next for Usyk. “Unless he retires. From the look of him, I can’t see him retiring.

I seriously doubt Usyk will waste his time on fighting Parker, because he has no fan base whatsoever, and there’s no money in a fight against him. If the WBO pushes it, Usyk will surely vacate that strap.

Parker can then be elevated to a paper champion, but his popularity will remain as low as it’s always been. He lacks charisma, and his fighting style is now beyond words, boring to watch. Parker has remade himself into this era’s version of Jimmy Young. He’s so awful to watch.

“It was a good fight while it lasted. I don’t agree with you that it was a one-sided fight. He was there with him in a couple of rounds. In the end, he just got caught with a shot and never recovered from it,” said Warren.

Frank is kidding himself if he doesn’t think the fight was one-sided. It was a mismatch between a far better, technically gifted Usyk against a clueless, inept-looking Dubois. Warren’s fighter, Daniel, looked like a rank amateur inside the ring tonight. It’s disturbing that he’s not admitting that his fighter was leagues below Usyk.