One heavyweight contender still bellies that Usyk should not have retained his world title after his last fight.
That fight was a second defense of his WBA, WBO and IBF world titles against Daniel Dubois out in Poland in August following his first defense against Anthony Joshua, who he took the titles from in 2021.
Usyk ended up beating Dubois by knockout in the ninth round and many were left questioning the Brit’s heart, but not before enduring something of a scare in the fifth round. Dubois caught him with a shot that was ruled low but judged by many onlookers to be a legitimate body shot. Usyk needed plenty of time to recover but in the wake of that many people are now seeing the technical southpaw’s body as a point of weakness.
One man who holds that view is Otto Wallin, who is to fight Joshua on December 23 on a supersized card in Saudi Arabia alongside the likes of Deontay Wilder, Joseph Parker, Daniel Dubois versus Jarrell Miller.
Speaking to talkSPORT Boxing, Wallin said he thinks Usyk should have lost his last fight.
“Usyk, his last fight, he really got knocked out by Dubois. I feel that was a legal blow he got hit with and he was just on the floor complaining about it. The referee did a terrible job telling Usyk to take more time. I’ve never seen that before. That can’t be legal, I didn’t understand it. Usyk didn’t look too good.”
Wallin then said that he thinks Usyk’s weakness to the body is an ongoing issue.
“You see his other fights, I was studying the [Murat] Gassiev fight, [he was] complaining about body shots and stuff. I think that’s his weakness.”
