Eddie Hearn says Oleksandr Usyk “100%” milked it last Saturday night with the controversial low blow from challenger Daniel Dubois in the fifth round in Wroclaw, Poland.
Hearn feels that Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs) stayed own to play it up to the referee because he doesn’t react well to getting hit to the body.
The shot that Dubois (19-2, 18 KOs) hit Usyk with was a devastatingly powerful blow that, even if he had seen it coming, would have hurt him.
Hearn says he thinks it was a low blow, and the referee Luis Pabon made the right decision. Of course, with Hearn wanting his Matchroom stable fighter Filip Hrgovic to be next for Usyk, it works in his favor if there isn’t a rematch ordered for Dubois.
If the fight were ruled no contest and a Usyk-Dubois rematch ordered, Hrgovic would need to wait even longer for his title shot.
So obviously, some would question whether Hearn is giving his true thoughts on the knockdown or saying something that will help the controversy over the low blow die down so Hrgovic gets his shot.
“Did he milk it? 100%. He milks it. He hates it to the body,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV about Oleksandr Usyk going down from a low blow from Daniel Dubois in the fifth round last Saturday night in Poland.
“You seen the clip from the AJ fight where he lands the same shot without the same venom, and he [Usyk] does the exact same thing.
“By the way, he was very clever after the fight. He pulls his shorts down to show where his shorts are, which were that far [two inches approximately] below the belly button, which in the fight it wasn’t. He was probably on the belly button,” Hearn continued about Usyk.
“He didn’t get up, he didn’t want to get up,” Hearn said about Dubois in the ninth round when he went down and was counted out after being hit by a jab from Usyk.
“He almost himself counted out in the first knockdown. He got up at 9 1/2. No real punches landed in that exchange. In the second one [in round nine], it was a really stiff jab and beautifully timed shot. He was on his knees at four, looking at the referee.
“He waited for the referee to count to ten, and then he got up. If you want to get up, you don’t wait. He knew what he was doing. He wasn’t concussed. He was just overwhelmed, and he’s done that twice now,” said Hearrn about Dubois.
