PATERSON, New Jersey – The man who beat the man who beat Daniel Dubois doesn’t think Dubois stands a chance to upset Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night.

Zhilei Zhang predicted during an interview with BoxingScene.com that Usyk will “dominate” Dubois during their 12-round fight for Usyk’s IBF, IBO, WBA and WBO heavyweight titles. China’s Zhang acknowledged that London’s Dubois is a dangerous puncher, but the WBO interim champion thinks Usyk’s experience and skill will be too much for Dubois to overcome in their main event at Tarczynski Arena Wroclaw, a soccer stadium in Wroclaw, Poland.

“I think Usyk will dominate the fight because Dubois, yes, he’s powerful,” Zhang told BoxingScene.com through his translator. “He’s strong, but at the same time he opens up too much. And if you punch and you miss, it goes nowhere. I’ve got Usyk.”

Most oddsmakers have installed Ukraine’s Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) as at least a 10-1 favorite versus Dubois (19-1, 18 KOs), who is the mandatory challenger for the former undisputed cruiserweight champion’s WBA heavyweight crown.

Dubois, 25, got his shot at Usyk’s titles before Joe Joyce, even though London’s Joyce punched Dubois into submission during the 10th round of their November 2020 bout in London. Rather than wait around for his own opportunity versus Usyk, Joyce made a voluntary defense of his WBO interim championship against Zhang on April 15 at Copper Box Arena in London.

Zhang (25-1-1, 20 KOs), who has since turned 40, made the most of his opportunity by upsetting Joyce by sixth-round technical knockout. The 6-foot-6, 278-pound Zhang repeatedly landed left hands that created severe swelling around Joyce’s right eye, which caused a British Boxing Board of Control physician to instruct referee Howard Foster to stop their 12-round battle at 1:23 of the sixth round.

Joyce (15-1, 14 KOs) exercised his contractual right to an immediate rematch with Zhang, which is scheduled for September 23 at OVO Arena Wembley in London.

It isn’t lost on Zhang, who is now the mandatory challenger for Usyk’s WBO belt, that Dubois will get his shot at Usyk’s titles before him, despite that he stopped the opponent who defeated Dubois.

“That’s what people call rules and we have to go by those rules,” Zhang said. “In the rotation [for the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO], Dubois is number one. And after him, we have Filip Hrgovic [the IBF’s mandatory challenger]. And I’m ranking number three. It is what it is.”

Usyk-Dubois will be the main event of a TNT Sports Box Office pay-per-view show in the United Kingdom and Ireland (£19.95; 6 p.m. BST). ESPN+ will stream Usyk-Dubois as a one-fight telecast in the United States (5 p.m. EDT; 2 p.m. PDT).

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.