Dubois was the beneficiary of this move by the IBF, picking up the interim title with a June 2024 stoppage of Filip Hrgovic and then being elevated to full champion after Usyk was stripped. Dubois then defended his title with a spectacular knockout of Anthony Joshua in Wembley Stadium.

Cruel is not a word one would instinctively associate with Oleksandr Usyk, but in the cauldron that Wembley Stadium became, the Ukrainian lured in the young pretender and knocked him out, stealing tens of thousands of Dubois's fans in the process.