Even though the weekend has come and gone, the boxing world still seems split on whether Daniel Dubois’ right hand on Oleksandr Usyk should have been ruled a low blow.
The thudding shot appeared to land on the lower half of Usyk’s belt line, and sent the masterful Ukrainian crashing to the canvas.
Referee Luis Pabon immediately ruled that the shot was illegal, and allowed Usyk over three minutes to recover.
Esteemed ref Jack Reiss, who famously refereed Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder’s first world title fight, spoke to DAZN Boxing Show about the decision, and attempted to provide some clarity over what is and what isn’t a low blow.
“Everybody’s belly button is different, some are lower and some are higher. So you can’t use the belly button. The hip line is the low blow point – the belly button has nothing to do with it.
A low blow is any time the majority of the gloves is below that hip line. On the hip line is legal, and it doesn’t become illegal until a majority of the glove starts to get below it.
This is why we identify the hip line for everybody before a fight – this is the line, don’t hit below this.”
Usyk was able to take complete control of the fight after the incident and began to slowly break the young Brit down, eventually scoring a ninth round stoppage victory.
The frontrunner for the next shot at Usyk’s unified world titles is IBF mandatory challenger Filip Hrgovic, who has made clear that he has zero intention of stepping aside so an undisputed fight between Usyk and Tyson Fury can happen – not that that seems in any way likely.