Heavyweight Joe Cusumano gets a big opportunity on Sunday’s Jake Paul vs Tyron Woodley PPV, where he’ll face British prospect Daniel Dubois as part of the undercard.
The 33-year-old Cusumano (19-3, 17 KO), a Virginia native, has been mostly a club fighter in his career, if we’re being honest, and is a massive underdog against Dubois (16-1, 15 KO) for pretty obvious reasons. He is the type of opponent we’ve seen the 23-year-old Brit crush several times at this point, but Cusumano believes he’s got more in the toolbox than we’ve seen, and he’s now got the chance to show it.
“I’m ready,” Cusumano said. “I’ve been fighting for a long time, and I’m ready to let my skills show. I’m a lot better than what I’ve shown. I’ve really been working on my skills and how to show off what I can do. This is the perfect fight to do that.”
How to Watch Paul vs Woodley
Date: Sunday, August 29 | Start Time: 8:00 pm ET
Location: Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland, OH
Streaming: PPV (Click Here to Buy!) | TV: PPV
Online Coverage: BadLeftHook.com
Cusumano last fought on Nov. 28, stopping Gregory Corbin in the sixth round on the Triller show headlined by the Tyson-Jones exhibition, which also featured Jake Paul’s knockout win over former NBA player Nate Robinson.
He sees Dubois as an aggressive fighter, and believes he can capitalize on that as a pro veteran — with plenty of punching power of his own.
“Dubois is an attacker like I am, and he’s young and hungry. This is a good fight. Both of us hit hard and fight to slug it out, but I believe the smarter man will win,” Cusumano said.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized you can’t always just attack. This is the heavyweight division. Anything can happen. The older I’ve gotten, the smarter I’ve gotten. This is a dream come true.”