“I genuinely imagine that my man will win,” stated Frank Warren from the highest desk of Thursday’s press convention in London to debate Oleksandr Usyk-Daniel Dubois. “I genuinely imagine that.

“As a lot as I believed, when Danny Williams went to the States to combat Mike Tyson and beat him. And he’s a greater fighter than Danny Williams.

“Nas, went he went to The Backyard towards Kevin Kelley – all of them thought [Kelley] was going to do the enterprise. I knew he was going to do it and he did it. When Joe Calzaghe fought towards Jeff Lacy too.

“This can be a second in time. That is going to occur. I’m telling you. That is going to be an incredible combat – whereas it lasts.”

Warren’s monitor document in delivering high-profile opponents on the right time for fighters thought-about underdogs calls for that when he speaks with such conviction he finally calls for consideration.

Ricky Hatton’s victory over Kostya Tszyu is one other he’d have been entitled to say – one much more related than the evening Naseem Hamed defeated Kevin Kelley – however the advantage of hindsight reveals, because it did the evening he orchestrated Josh Warrington’s career-changing victory over Lee Selby, that circumstances had been on Hamed’s, Williams’ and Calzaghe’s sides.

When in 2017 Warren invested to deliver Gervonta Davis to London to combat Liam Walsh he partly did so as a result of he was equally assured in Walsh’s possibilities of victory. The years since have demonstrated that Davis is an elite fighter past Walsh’s capabilities, however there was a time when Warren, maybe additionally decided to ship the best calibre of fighter for his then-new platform of BT Sport, within the build-up to Davis-Walsh had Hatton-Tzsyu and extra in thoughts.

For all that he spoke with conviction on the facet of Dubois, it isn’t unthinkable that he was partly doing so via the prism of additionally being Tyson Fury’s promoter. Warren justifiably considers Fury a robust favorite within the context of the proposed combat between them it’s to be hoped will nonetheless occur; the benefits that exist for Fury over Usyk are regardless considerably much less relevant to Dubois.

If Warren is aware of a winnable combat for one among his fighters – and it has been tempting, within the aftermath of Dubois’ defeat by Joe Joyce and the emergence of Moses Itauma, to think about whether or not  he’s as satisfied by somebody who stays one of many world’s most promising heavyweights – he additionally recognises alternatives that shouldn’t be resisted. When Anthony Yarde travelled to Russia to problem Sergey Kovalev in 2019 he did so not because the favorite however as a result of victory would have represented a bonus on a night when, as so unenviable an underdog, his improvement, profile and repute was more likely to be enhanced. 4 years on Dubois, a good larger underdog, is travelling to Poland to combat the best energetic fighter of all of them.

Additionally alongside Warren in London had been the heavyweight and his new coach Don Charles, who each arrived an hour late having travelled from his coaching camp in Granada, Spain. With out the companies of Shane McGuigan – who in 2019 ready Luke Campbell to problem Vasyl Lomachenko and who had guided Dubois for the reason that defeat by Joyce – Dubois is working underneath Charles for the primary time.

“It’s our time,” Charles stated to somebody alongside him earlier than talking on the prime desk, and when he did so there was little doubting he believed what he stated. Charles gave little away when Warren described Usyk’s former opponent Derek Chisora as somebody who “all the time fights properly sufficient to return second”, but when he’s a much less confirmed coach than McGuigan, for the event of subsequent month’s combat his apparently whole perception in his new fighter could but show precisely what Dubois wants.

“You may hear in my voice – 20 years of ardour [from my time in boxing], and God delivered this younger man [Dubois is 25] right here,” Charles stated. “This can be a soldier that’s going to cross the road to go to the promised land. You may hear in my voice I’m trembling – I can’t wait.”

Sat on the opposite facet of Usyk, his promoter Alex Krassyuk and his supervisor Egis Klimas, was, unexpectedly, none apart from Naseem Hamed. His 23-year-old son Addam will make his debut in a combat being described because the “co-main occasion” (there’s hardly ever ever any such factor – simply the principle occasion and the undercard) on the Tarczynski Enviornment in Wroclaw.

Hamed later spoke of his need to maintain his distance from his son’s profession, and whereas 21 years have handed since he fought his charisma stays intact. “Timing’s every thing, child,” he interjected when Warren was making his case for Dubois, having fun with himself and instantly changing into the centre of consideration as he so typically was in his prime with an ease so hardly ever seen since.

That he has confirmed so underwhelming a combat pundit signifies that his takes on the principle occasion – he responded to Dubois with “I like that, child – combating speak” – will hardly ever appear related. Extra worthy of acknowledgment is the truth that he not solely stays so pure a showman that he adjusted accordingly when he observed photographers making an attempt to seize he and his good-looking son collectively, whereas he did so he continued to talk with such readability it may be concluded he isn’t about to start out fighting CTE.

All through, Usyk – logically for a 36-year-old fighter who has visited the frontline of his nation’s makes an attempt to defend themselves from the invasion of Russia – couldn’t have been extra constantly composed. Dubois’ dimensions appeared extra vital after they had been shut to one another; the fact, regardless, is that after they got here head to head he offered the Ukrainian with little he hasn’t already seen.