Former world champion Sergio Mora believes that Daniel Dubois did not deserve the win against Oleksandr Usyk.
The two heavyweights fought over the weekend in Poland, with Usyk successfully defending his IBF, WBO and WBO belts.
He ended the fight with a ninth-round jab that left Dubois counted out for the second time in his career.
However, the 25-year-old Briton might have had victory if Usyk had not recovered from his own knockdown in the fifth round. But the referee allowed the Ukrainian several minutes to recover instead, after ruling the shot to be a low blow.
Dubois rejected the interpretation from the ref after the fight, but with the punch coming on Usyk’s waistband, there is argument on both sides of the dispute.
Speaking on JABS on DAZN, Mora believes it was not a low blow, but Dubois failed to take advantage when he had the chance.
He explained: “The punch wasn’t low, it was borderline, and borderline isn’t low, but all this is to the discretion of a referee, so what I like to do, as a fighter, is take a look two times and know it’s a borderline shot. It wasn’t flagrant, it wasn’t on purpose like a lot of others do when they’re hurt. It was in the middle of a moment.
“The trajectory of the punch was an uppercut, when it landed, the moment of impact, it was above the hip line. You have to forget about the belly button or the trunks. It’s the hip line that you have to focus on, not the navel, not the trunks. If you look at Usyk’s trunks, you couldn’t even see his belly button.
“You have to imagine where the punch landed, it landed right on the money, it was a fair shot, it should have counted as a knockdown.
“Do I think Dubois deserved to win? No, Usyk dominated. It wasn’t a low blow and Usyk won fair and square and got up like a champion. Did he use the rules to his favor? Absolutely, like a lot of sly fighters do.
“That’s why Usyk is a great champion, he soaked up that time. He had more than three minutes, an entire round on the floor, and that’s Luis Pabon’s fault right there. Usyk should have gotten up. We’ve seen Usyk hurt to the body for, if you studied his amateurs. Anthony Joshua hurt him with the same body punch. You can tell that the punch was studied by Dubois and his trainer, but it just didn’t go in his favour.”
[dazn]