Usyk dominates, KOs Dubois in 9th to retain unified heavyweight title

Controversy over challenger's low blow in 5th round that he argues was legal and should have ended the fight

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Oleksandr Usyk dominated Daniel Dubois and dropped him twice en route to a ninth-round knockout to retain his unified heavyweight title, but he had to overcome a major scare in the fifth round on Saturday night at Stadion Wroclaw in Wroclaw, Poland, where he was cheered wildly by a crowd of around 40,000 mostly Ukrainians in a rain storm.

Those fans were nearly silenced in the fifth round when Dubois landed a body shot that dropped Usyk to the canvas in agony. There was no way Usyk would have beaten the count but referee Luis Pabon, a vastly experienced championship official, ruled that the punch was a low blow — it landed deep on Usyk’s waistband and appeared to be the right call even if it was close — and he was given time to recover.

Rules permit five minutes to recover in the event of a foul and Usyk took his time. He was down on the canvas leaning against the ropes for a couple of minutes before rising, stretching out and eventually continuing after a break in the action of about 4 minutes.

The southpaw Usyk finished the round well, going on the attack and landing one of his many clean straight left hands in the closing seconds.

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