Tony Bellew has had his say on the low blow saga surrounding Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois’ first fight in August 2023.
The contest in Poland was Dubois’ first world title shot. It came when he was still establishing himself in the division and arguably hadn’t beaten any top level fighters.
He started well and infamously had Usyk down in the fifth round after catching him with a heavy body shot, although the referee immediately ruled it low.
Usyk was down on the canvas and given as much time as he needed to recover, which he did, and later stopped Dubois in the 9th round, though he has since been accused of conning the referee by Dubois’ trainer Don Charles.
After that contest, Dubois pushed on and got impressive stoppage wins over Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic, which saw him elevated to IBF world champion, and then Anthony Joshua in September 2024.
He is now one of the division’s form men and gets his Usyk rematch for all four belts and undisputed honours on July 19 at Wembley Stadium.
Speaking to SportingTalk ahead of that, Bellew didn’t hesitate to call out what he thought was a low blow in their first fight.
“Let’s not get away from anything, Daniel Dubois fought him once and we seen how that fight went. Everyone goes on about a shot, let’s just be brutally honest, it hit the protector. Why is it called a protector? Because it protects you from certain shots.”
Dubois pushed Usyk at the first head-to-head to announce the fight, while Usyk remained typically calm. The Brit will be hoping he can secure another of the impressive knockouts he has been putting together in his last three fights, with mandatory challenger Joseph Parker waiting in the wings for the winner.
