Trainer Don Charles was extremely vocal in the aftermath of Daniel Dubois’ loss to Oleksandr Usyk.
The Brit enlisted Charles for his corner in the lead-up to his world title challenge, and the pair worked on body shots in the gym.
Come the fifth round, they thought that had paid off when Usyk was hurt, but the referee, Luis Pabon, immediately ruled it a low blow. Usyk would recover and win the fight via ninth round stoppage.
At the post-fight press conference, Charles accused the unified world champion of cheating and claimed that it was a perfectly legal punch. A big debate followed, and Dubois’ team lodged a complaint with the WBA.
The sanctioning body recently announced that the result would stand and no evidence provided to them proved Pabon’s decision was incorrect.
Speaking to Seconds Out, Charles said that he was never hopeful of a positive result for his fighter.
“I wasn’t holding my breath in the sense that you kind of know the outcome before. I knew it would fall on deaf ears. They took forever to give us a result. All they did is announce that the Fury and Usyk fight had been signed, so that’s basically our answer there publicly, and then they came back shortly after that saying there was insufficient evidence.
Insufficient evidence? Who are they trying to kid? In the day we live with modern technology what more evidence do they need? … It was an overwhelming majority in the sense that if you put a vote out there you’re looking at 75, 80% callied it a perfectly legal shot.
We weren’t holding our breath. It’s not fair, it’s not right, but that’s the world we live in today. We just march on and keep perfecting what we do. Next time, anything we do in that ring will be conclusive – we’ll take it out of their hands.”
Dubois is looking at a return in early 2024, faced with having to fight his way back to the top once more. Meanwhile, Usyk moves ahead to an undisputed fight with Tyson Fury.