Oleksandr Usyk retained his heavyweight titles against Daniel Dubois on Saturday night in an event that wasn’t without controversy and talking points.
Usyk was heavy favourite going into the bout and lived up to that billing by controlling the fight from the offset. Dubois wasn’t allowed to get into any sort of rhythm and failed to establish his jab.
However, in the fifth round Usyk was sent to the canvas by an upwards looping body shot from ‘DDD’. In a moment that seems to have split boxing fans down the middle, the referee immediately called the shot as an illegal low blow and gave the Ukrainian three minutes to recover.
From that moment Usyk was never overly troubled again and finished the fight in the ninth round after a straight right jab to which Dubois took to his knees and seemingly waited for the ten count.
Tony Bellew suffered a similar fate when he faced Usyk back in 2018, being on the wrong end of a vicious knock out in the eighth round – although his was much more conclusive.
Taking to X (formerly twitter), Bellew made his feelings clear about Dubois staying down for the count – “Spew it once and you’ll spew it again”.
“Anything below the naval is classed as low in boxing! That’s not my opinion that’s a FACT! That’s the rules! Your shorts shouldn’t cover your naval cos if they do the belt can be hit! This picture says a thousand words!
Spew it once and you’ll spew it again is also another fact!”
Anything below the naval is classed as low in boxing! That’s not my opinion that’s a FACT! That’s the rules! Your shorts shouldn’t cover your naval cos if they do the belt can be hit! This picture says a thousand words! Spew it once and you’ll spew it again is also another fact! pic.twitter.com/JDdfJxdGrE
— Tony Bellew (@TonyBellew) August 26, 2023
Immediately after the contest, Dubois’ promoter, Frank Warren, claimed his man was ‘robbed’ by the low blow decision and announced they would be petitioning the WBA for the result to be changed to a no contest or for an immediate rematch to be ordered.