Daniel Dubois has been labelled a ‘dirty’ fighter after his defeat to Oleksandr Usyk, accused of repeatedly trying to land illegal shots on the champion during Saturday’s world title showdown.
Usyk, 36, defended his IBF, WBO and WBA heavyweight titles in Poland after stopping the challenger in the ninth round with a stinging jab that left him unable to meet the referee’s count.
There was controversy in the fifth round after Dubois landed a thunderous shot on Usyk’s beltline which was ruled a low blow. The Ukrainian, in clear distress sat slumped on the canvas in agony, permitted almost four minutes to recover from the ‘illegal’ shot.
Having dominated the fight before that moment, Usyk swiftly rediscovered his rhythm and continued to control the contest, dropping Dubois in the eighth before the finish in the ninth.
In his post-fight interview, 25-year-old Dubois insisted he had been ‘cheated’ out of a world title victory, with his promoter Frank Warren planning to lodge an appeal against the decision with hope of enforcing a rematch.
Usyk and his team have been adamant the right decision was made by referee Luis Pabon with his promoter Alexander Krassyuk accusing Dubois of repeatedly going for illegal shots as part of a ‘dirty plan’ to disrupt the champion.
And responding to calls for a rematch, Krassyuk suggested Dubois’ tactics mean he does not deserve another crack.
‘Everyone wants the rematch after he loses a fight,’ Krassyuk said in a post-fight press conference.
‘With all due respect to Daniel Dubois who is our guest and our opponent, it is difficult to express respect for the way they treated the fight, for the way they wanted to get the victory.
‘Sometimes it happens, you hit someone with an illegal blow, yeah it is normal. But when you keep doing this on purpose, it means you have some sort of dirty plan.
‘Boxing is a pure art, a pure sport and it has to stay pure. That is why the guy has to deserve his rematch.’
He added: ‘The dirty performance means that you don’t care about what happens if you have some kind of strategy to use this as a leverage to develop your success. But how can we say now if this was a strategy or not. We saw several low blows.’
Warren meanwhile insisted he will ‘not stand’ for Saturday’s decision and is confident the WBA, the sanctioning body in which Dubois was the mandatory challenger for, will order a rematch.
Asked if he would like to speak to the WBA about a rematch, he replied: ‘We’d not just like to speak to them, they’re gonna get their door kicked in!
‘No cry-baby stuff. All we want is a fair shake, and we didn’t get it. What’s going to happen is what I said, and I’m very confident that once all the evidence is reviewed, they’ll either declare it a no-contest or order an immediate rematch.’
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