IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs) has seemingly lost a lot of respect from fans over the low-blow controversy from his fight against Daniel Dubois last Saturday night in Wroclaw, Poland.
Fans who saw the slow-motion replay are convinced that Usyk should have been knocked out in the fifth round after staying down for almost five minutes from what appeared to be a clean bodyshot. He looked like he had the wind knocked out of him rather than someone hitting him in the groin.
The boxing public that believed that Usyk put in pure theatrics with the knockout was disappointed that he didn’t take the high road and show some class by admitting that he faked it and that he would give Dubous a rematch to make up for it. Instead, Usyk said he’s moving on and wants to face Tyson Fury next.
Many boxing fans think that Usyk lied & cheated by putting in a theatrical performance after taking a massive right hand from Dubois (19-2, 18 KOs) directly on the beltline of his trunks, which appeared to be pulled up high over his bellybutton to create a smaller target area for Daniel to land.
Going into the fight, it was generally believed that Usyk’s Achilles heel was his inability to take body shots. He’d been hurt by Anthony Joshua, and Artur Beterbiev hurt him in the Olympics.
During the World Series Boxing competition, Usyk had been hurt to the body in one of his fights from what appeared to be a clean shot on the waistband. He reacted to it like last Saturday, acting like it had been low, and the referee gave him a break by not giving him a count.
“Why are arguing? It was a dominating performance. He won every single round. He purely won, and he knocked the guy [Dubois] out,” said Alex Krassyuk to the media about Usyk.
“Before the fight, I read on the media that was their plan to act dirty. We can say only what we saw, and we saw several low blows.
“He is the promoter for Daniel Dubois. He has to take each & every effort to support him and to defend him,” said Krassyuk about Dubois’ promoter Frank Warren.
“The plan is to go to a big fight. If the big fight doesn’t happen, then we have to comply with the rules.
“I threw the shot and felt it land perfectly, smack into his stomach. I became disheartened; I lost momentum after that… This wrong needs to be corrected. I should be a world champion right now,” said Dubois to BBC Sport on the body shot he landed in the fifth round to put Oleksandr Usyk down.
