Daniel Dubois kick will be considered to the waist

The continuation of the career of heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk will depend on the results of the appeal, nevertheless filed by the team of Briton Daniel Dubois based on the emergency that happened during the last fight of the Ukrainian. In it, Usyk was on the floor in the fifth round and was forced to recover for a long time after a hit that referee Luis Pabon considered an illegal low blow – despite the fact that his decision caused heated debate in the boxing community. Representatives of Dubois demand that the World Boxing Association (WBA), which sanctioned the fight, either declare the fight that ended in an early victory for the Ukrainian in the ninth round as void, or at least oblige him to hold a rematch against the Briton. Such a verdict could derail Usyk’s meeting with the mandatory challenger of the International Boxing Federation Filip Hrgovic.

The promoter of British boxer Daniel Dubois, Frank Warren, told media resources such as the BBC that he had filed an appeal with the World Boxing Association (WBA) against the result of his client’s fight with the famous Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk. It took place on August 26 in Wroclaw and at first was perceived as a checkpoint. In the spring, Usyk, the holder of the WBA, International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Organization (WBO) champion titles, negotiated a much more significant and interesting match – for the status of the absolute world champion with the owner of the World Boxing Council (WBC) belt Tyson Fury. However, they suddenly fell apart. Instead of Fury, Usyk got the WBA mandatory challenger Dubois, who was quoted much lower, as rivals. However, the battle still turned into a high-profile event due to the emergency that happened in it.

In the fifth round, Oleksandr Usyk, who had a huge advantage, after being hit by Daniel Dubois on the body, ended up on the floor of the ring and could not get to his feet for a long time. However, the experienced referee Luis Pabon, instead of fixing the knockdown, immediately showed that the blow was delivered below the belt, which is prohibited in boxing.

At the same time, Pabon did not punish Dubois for breaking the rules, simply giving his opponent almost five minutes to recover.

The restored Usyk soon finished off the Briton, knocking him down in the eighth round, and in the ninth one forcing Luis Pabon to stop the match.

After the fight, Daniel Dubois stated that he was “robbed”, meaning that the referee, in his opinion, made a gross mistake. Representatives of the boxer’s team adhered to the same point of view, referring to the video replay of the scandalous episode. It clearly shows that Dubois hit exactly in the belt of Oleksandr Usyk’s underpants.

The opinion of the boxing community about the fairness of Luis Pabon’s decision was divided. But at least a significant part of it sided with Daniel Dubois.

Among those who are sure that the knockout was “clean” were a number of superstars like the American Oscar De La Hoya. And some sites covering professional boxing, before Frank Warren announced the appeal, recalled a similar incident from Usyk’s biography ten years ago. In 2013, within the framework of the World Series, a competition invented by the International Boxing Association (now called the IBA), the Ukrainian met with the Azerbaijani boxer Magomedrasul Majidov. Then in the third round, he, too, having missed a blow to the body, sat down on the floor, trying to show that he fell below the belt. The referee of the fight, unlike Pabon, however, opened the scoring, and Usyk, seeing this, got to his feet.

Oleksandr Usyk’s manager Oleksandr Krasyuk previously assessed the chances of the British side to challenge the result of the Wroclaw match as “zero”. Meanwhile, Frank Warren is confident that the outcome of the proceedings in the WBA for Daniel Dubois will be successful. True, success is still not awarding him victory. Warren does not even consider such a radical option. He demands either to recognize the fight as “not taking place”, or – as, in the words of the promoter, “worst case scenario” – to sanction a rematch. In this case, the plans of the IBF will be frustrated, which, in fact, has already obliged the Ukrainian to fight against his challenger. He is a fairly well-known Croatian heavyweight Filip Hrgovic.

Examples when an appeal to the outcome of a fight changed it are extremely rare in professional boxing, but they do exist, including at the top level. For example, in 2011, the protest helped the legendary American Bernard Hopkins retain the WBC light heavyweight title (up to 79.4 kg). After falling to the floor in the second round of the match against Chad Dawson, Hopkins was unable to continue due to injury, and he was credited with a knockout defeat. However, Bernard Hopkins managed to prove to the WBC that Dawson knocked him down not with a punch, but with a wrestling hold, capturing his leg. The structure recognized the fight as “not taking place” and appointed a revenge. Hopkins lost on points.

Alexey Dospekhov