Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom believes there is no question that Oleksandr Usyk milked the situation in the fifth round of his fight with Daniel Dubois.
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.
Usyk was on the ground and appeared to be in so much pain that he wasn’t able to get back to his feet.
After taking a few minutes to recover from the shot, Usyk would resume the contest and eventually stopped Dubois in the ninth round.
While Hearn agrees that it was a low blow, he does believe Usyk milked the situation and would have gotten up had the referee issued a count.
He also felt Usyk did the same thing during his two-fight series with Anthony Joshua – and cites a video clip where AJ connected with a borderline punch, with Usyk indicating to the referee that it was a low blow and limping away in pain to the ropes.
“Did he milk it? 100% he milked it. He hates it to the body. You’ve seen the clip from the AJ fight, where [Joshua] lands the same shot without as much venom [as Dubois], and [Usyk] does exactly the same thing [milking the punch]. And by the way, [Usyk] was very clever after the fight – he pulls his shorts down to show where his shorts are, which was about that far below the belly button [several inches] – which in the fight it wasn’t, it was probably on the belly button,” Hearn told IFL TV.
“But the reality is, watch when the punch is delivered…. it hit his protector, it was underneath the waistband, most of the glove, it was a low blow.”