Daniel Dubois will appeal Oleksandr Usyk defeat after 'low blow' KO controversy

27 August 2023 , 11:09

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Daniel Dubois floored Oleksandr Usyk with an 'illegal' shot (Image: JANEK SKARZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Daniel Dubois and his promotional team are planning to appeal the Brit's loss to Oleksandr Usyk last night in Poland after controversy over a fifth round punch.

The Brit was struggling to get to grips with his rival last night in Poland when in the fifth round he landed a thudding shot that sent Usyk to the floor. However, referee Luis Pabon immediately called it as low and allowed him a considerable break to recover from the blow.

But fans and experts are divided over whether or not the shot truly qualifies as below the belt line, with many feeling it landed right on the line. And promoter Frank Warren has insisted that he will be pushing for an immediate rematch to be called, and even for the result to be overturned to a no contest.

Speaking with talkSPORT after the fight, Warren said: "He won that, if he had been allowed to carry on, he would have won. We will appeal this. It’s a liberty.” Dubois in his own post-fight interview claimed: "I don't think that was a low blow. I think that landed and I've been cheated out of victory tonight. What else can I say?"

"He's been cheated, it hit him on the waistband," Warren said in the immediate aftermath. "That's all he worked on in camp, to the body, we saw it as a weakness and the referee got it badly wrong. I like Usyk but that was a hometown decision. He won the fight because he was not fit to go on and they gave him a couple of minutes to recover from a legitimate shot."

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There are experts on both sides of the debate, with former world champion Carl Frampton saying on the TNT Sport broadcast that he felt it should have been scored. Usyk spent a long time on the canvas, but it remains to be seen how quickly he would have risen had the knockdown been scored.

In the end, he got back up and continued to dominate the contest, landing a knockdown at the end of the eighth round that served as the biggest marker in the fight. Early in the ninth he had Dubois down again, with the Brit rising just at the end of the ten count to suffer his second stoppage defeat as a professional.

Donagh Corby