As the dust begins to settle on Oleksandr Usyk’s win over Daniel Dubois this past weekend, the vast majority of post fight discourse as been around the low blow – or legal body shot, depending on who you ask – that sent Usyk to the canvas in round five.
However, former world champion turned pundit Paulie Malignaggi has got a different gripe to air about the contest.
In a video on his YouTube channel, Malignaggi blasted the lack of protection of the ring canvas from heavy rain at Wroclaw Stadium, which he claimed “ruined the whole fight.”
“I don’t even think the low blow is the biggest problem with the fight here. My biggest problem is that the fight is in the outdoors in Poland, it’s raining cats and dogs, they don’t have the ring protected, the ring is completely slippery.
I’ve trained in slippery rings and I could not stand it. If you’re dealing with rain and it’s getting inside the ring, you’re ruining the entire evolution of the way the fight is going to go. I don’t want to take away credit from Dubois or Usyk, they both put on an entertaining fight.
But when you’re a footwork based fighter and there’s a wet ring, it ruins everything. It’s possible that the body shot may not even land if the ring wasn’t wet.
How do you host a fight and you don’t protect the ring correctly from that kind of rain? It ruined the whole fight!”
Regardless if he was hampered by the elements or not, Usyk was in control for the vast majority of the fight and was able to stop the young Brit in round nine.
Dubois’ promoter Frank Warren was furious on the night with referee Luis Pabon’s decision on the incident in the fifth round and is planning to lobby to the WBA for an immediate rematch.