Dylan Colin, French light heavyweight champion, will fight this Saturday in Saudi Arabia for an intercontinental belt. The Toulouse boxer will enter the ring to open the fight of the year: the rematch between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, heavyweight world champion.
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He still has difficulty realizing it. Saturday December 21, Dylan Colin will enter the ring at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), to participate in the event that all boxing fans around the world are impatiently awaiting.
The Toulois will fight in the opening clash between the Briton Tyson Fury and the Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk, the unified heavyweight world champion. A highly publicized rematch after Usyk’s victory last May and at the end of which the two boxers will share 190 million euros.
“It’s an exceptional poster between the two star boxers of recent years, it’s incredible! It was impossible to refuse! jubilant the 31-year-old Lorraine. I am the only French person participating in this evening. During their first fight, Cristiano Ronaldo was in the audience. It’s a dream, I couldn’t imagine anything better!”
Former French boxing world champion, Dylan Colin successfully switched to English boxing in 2018 under the leadership of his father Daniel who tragically died in 2021. Trained since then by his uncle Claude Jacquot, he now has 14 victories in 14 fights professionals, including four by knockout.
After retaining his title of French light heavyweight champion a year ago at Roland Garros, the Lorraine has the opportunity to take off his career this Saturday. In Saudi Arabia, he will fight for the IBO and WBA intercontinental belts against the Ukrainian Daniel Lapin, a 1.98m left-hander.
Daniel Lapin will fight at home
“Daniel Lapin is a fairly young boxer (27 years old), who has 10 victories in 10 fights, including four by knockout, explains Toulois. He is part of Oleksandr Usyk’s team which has been based in Saudi Arabia since the start of the war in Ukraine and which has big ambitions for him. We can say that he will fight at home, which will inevitably influence the judges.”
In the light heavyweight category (less than 79.378 kg), it is rare to see boxers as tall as Daniel Lapin. During his two months of preparation, Dylan Colin therefore sought to adapt his technique and his strategy to face this Ukrainian, to whom he gave 13 centimeters. The Frenchman left for two weeks for an internship at the Marseille boxing club to face tall sparring partners.
“Dylan will have to break the distance and work his opponent on the body to undermine him little by little. If he manages to wear him down in the first half of the fight, he will then be able to come into close combat to aim for his head, explains Claude Jacquot. The objective is to knock him out and not go to the end of the fight, because the judges will be in favor of Lapin.”
It is therefore a major challenge that awaits the Toulouse puncher, who always trains in fairly precarious conditions for a professional boxer. But Dylan is determined to seize his chance. In the event of victory, he would jump in the world rankings, which would allow him to glimpse even more prestigious and lucrative fights.
The opportunity or never to get noticed
“Even if I have to lose, I want to come out of the ring with my head held high having shown all my qualities. There will be great people in the room and millions of viewers around the world. This is the opportunity or never to get noticed and I don’t want to miss it! insists the Frenchman.
The opportunity also for him to continue to follow in the footsteps of his uncle René Jacquot, super-welterweight world champion in 1989.
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