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Usyk vs Dubois 2 - Did Dubois land a knockout blow in controversial first fight?
If there was controversy in the first fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois , it centred around whether a blow from Dubois in the fifth round was low.
As it was, referee Luis Pabon declared that it was and so gave Usyk a four-minute-long rest in which to compose himself. After doing so, Usyk restarted the fight, outclassed Dubois, and ultimately won by stoppage in the ninth round.
There was controversy and disagreement over the low blow.
Speaking at the press conference later, Dubois’s promoter Frank Warren said, “No cry-baby stuff. Fine. We’re here, and all we want is a fair shake. And we didn’t get it.
We didn’t get it at all. But, look, we could go on about it all night long. What is going to happen is I’ve said, and I’m confident that once all the evidence is reviewed and so forth, they will either declare it a no-contest or order an immediate rematch.”
Dubois did not appear. He was, his team said, so distraught that he had left the building.
He did, however, speak to the BBC a day later. His face and head were bruised, and his voice was soft and gentle. He raised a hand to his head when he spoke.
He said, “I’ve seen it. I looked at it and you know I was there. I threw that shot and I felt it land perfectly, smack, into his stomach. They just cheated out of it … He weren’t gonna make it in time. He was out. That should have been a knockout. And I think you know that this needs to go further. It needs to be pushed, and this wrong needs to be corrected because I should be a world champion right now.”
I saw the low blow that night from up close. The reason was because I was in Wroclaw to accompany my friend Muhammad Anthony Yigit who was the chief support on the undercard. All of it – Yigit’s fight, the heavyweight championship of the world - was to be material for my book Death of a Boxer .
When Usyk went down in the fifth round, those of us ringside thought it was an ankle injury at first. The blow from Dubois had been hard to see and it was only in hindsight that anyone saw how heavy it had been. It was on the beltline, and an observer could have called it either way.
Dubois thought it had been a legal shot to the body. Usyk said the shot was low.
There has been some controversy and question over the show in the years since.
But the answer is simple and was solved on the night.
The shot was low. And the reason we know that is because the referee said it was. That should have closed the case.
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But what happened, instead, is that Dubois became disheartened. The tide, which had already turned against him, seemed to surge. He was not going to get the break that he thought he got. He gave up on trying to find a way to win.
Usyk, however, saw the opportunity. He stayed down as long as he was allowed, rested, and came back to finish the fight strongly.
There was no point deduction for the low blow. And, besides, the fight did not go the distance, either. Usyk got back to his feet eventually and, having found a way to win, used it.
And that, on that night in Wroclaw, is what separated the pair of them.
Usyk vs Dubois 2 only on DAZN
Watch Usyk versus Dubois 2 live and exclusive on DAZN PPV this Saturday - July 19 - for £24.99 UK; $59.99 US; $19.99/equivalent ROW .
