Don Charles, the trainer of heavyweight contender Daniel Dubois, is standing firm on his position that his boxer was robbed of the unified crown last Saturday night in Poland.
Charles believes his boxer knocked out Oleksandr Usyk in the fifth round of their world title fight.
During the round in question, Dubois connected with a hard shot to the body, which caused Usyk to immediately go down in pain for several minutes.
Referee Luis Pabon issued a quick ruling that Dubois’ punch was a low blow.
After taking a few minutes to recover from the shot, Usyk would resume the contest and eventually stopped Dubois in the ninth round.
Over the last few days, there has been heavy debate on whether or not the punch was legal.
Dubois’ handlers are planning to file an appeal with the WBA – hoping to overturn the outcome to a no-contest.
“[Dubois is] not in a good state right now, he’s distraught. He had his dream snatched away from him,” Charles explained to The Sun.
“From that moment onwards [in the fifth round], the momentum shifted. Usyk using his superior experience and his masterful boxing to get out of that situation. He was allowed to escape from that situation. The fight was finished, the fight should’ve ended there and then in round five with a KO.
“Not even a TKO, a KO. I feel violated, I feel wounded. My fighter, he’s a young guy. He’s not a guy that says a lot. Luckily for us, he has a nice tight family unit and his father is a very strong character who is going to hold him together. I’m going to do what a coach does mentally. It’s not even physical, it’s mental.”
According to Charles, he expressed concerns regarding Usyk’s guard being worn too high.
“Usyk is known for wearing his guard extremely high. We’ve got footage of the referee reading our rules in the dressing room 45 minutes prior to the fight. He said to us, ‘Do you have any questions?’ I said, ‘Yes, I do.’ ‘Can you Usyk wears his groin guard where it’s supposed to finish?’ And he said, ‘Fine’. No such thing happened,” Charles said.
“Before the bell rang, he’s supposed to point to the two fighters and say, ‘This is good, this is not good.’ He’s supposed to say, but he missed the protocol.”