Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois joined pundits Simon Jordan and Jim White for a joint segment on talkSPORT to promote their July 19 rematch for the undisputed heavyweight championship.

It was a slow segment that foreshadows what will likely be a slow promotion. 

Both Usyk and Dubois are soft-spoken, and though both have their charms – Usyk’s kooky sense of humor, Dubois as the gentle giant – they looked as though they’d sooner sit on a panel together than entertain a full-blown argument. 

Ali-Frazier, this is not. 

Hosts and fighters rehashed their first fight: Was it a low blow? Was it not a low blow? (You’ll be shocked to know that Usyk thinks it was low, while Dubois and the British pundits felt it was not low.) 

The moment has been replayed so many times that there are few interesting things left to say about it – the question of whether Usyk could have gotten up before being counted out had the punch been legal is most compelling, and is also unknowable given the punch was immediately ruled low.

Though the language barrier may have played a role, Usyk looked uninterested as Dubois spoke, looking aimlessly around the studio.

Seemingly disappointed with the offerings of their guests, Jordan and White broke in to ask new questions before the fighters had finished their answers. Jordan even asked Usyk if the prospect of hometown support for Dubois worried Usyk – they are to fight in Wembley Stadium and Dubois is a Londoner – as if the Ukrainian hadn’t won several big fights in his opponents’ backyards.

The reality is that their first fight was uncompetitive and uncontroversial aside from a single ruled low blow in the fifth round. Though Dubois has been on a tear since and can feasibly win the rematch, this rivalry is more exciting for what it could become than what it has already proven itself to be. 

Even Dubois shoving Usyk during a brief face-off after the rematch was announced didn’t bear fruit – Dubois didn’t put much muscle into the push, and Usyk was cackling seconds after.

Dubois did produce a couple tasty soundbites on the segment – the fight would be a “bloodbath,” and any home crowd support he may or may not enjoy on July 19 “doesn’t matter.” 

A narrative for this fight that might have some legs is not the low-blow-not-low-blow – a single spot of drama in an otherwise dominant Usyk win – but Dubois’ steep arc of improvement since.

“I can say a million words about it, but I feel it, I’m ready,” Dubois said. “Everything that’s happened to me from the last time we fought – there’s a lot of pain, a lot of built-up anger and everything. I want to just dish it out and make sure that I come away with all the belts.”