Oleksandr Usyk vs Daniel Dubois was a heavyweight professional boxing match between WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO and The Ring heavyweight champion, Ukrainian, Oleksandr Usyk and WBA (Regular) heavyweight champion, Briton, Daniel Dubois.

Quick Facts Date, Venue ...

Oleksandr Usyk vs Daniel Dubois

Date	26 August 2023
Venue	Stadion Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland
Title(s) on the line	WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO and The Ring heavyweight titles
Tale of the tape
Boxer Oleksandr Usyk Daniel Dubois Nickname "The Cat" "Dynamite" Hometown Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine Greenwich, London, UK Pre-fight record 20–0 (13 KO) 19–1 (18 KO) Age 36 years, 7 months 25 years, 11 months Height 6 ft 3 in (191 cm) 6 ft 5 in (196 cm) Weight 220.9 lb (100 kg) 233.2 lb (106 kg) Style Southpaw Orthodox Recognition WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, The Ring and IBO Heavyweight Champion The Ring No. 3 ranked pound-for-pound fighter 2-division world champion WBA (Regular) Heavyweight Champion WBO No. 8 Ranked Heavyweight
Result
Usyk wins via ninth round KO

Close

The bout took place on 26 August 2023 at Stadion Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland. Usyk defeated Dubois via knockout in the 9th round.^[1]

On 6 July 2023, it was announced that Usyk would defend his heavyweight titles against mandatory WBA challenger Dubois. Dubois became the mandatory challenger to Usyk after he defeated Trevor Bryan On 11 June 2022, by knockout in the fourth round to become the WBA (Regular) heavyweight champion. This was then followed up with a victory over and defence of his WBA (Regular) heavyweight title against Kevin Lerena on 3 December 2022. This set up a mandatory challenge to Usyk for the WBA (Super) heavyweight championship.^[2][3][4][5]

Usyk retained his titles via ninth-round stoppage, however there was controversy surrounding the events of the fifth round, when Usyk dropped to the canvas following a punch from Dubois that was controversially ruled a low blow by referee Luis Pabon. Accordingly, Usyk was given a maximum of five minutes to recover, but despite declaring he was ready to continue, Pabon urged Usyk to take more time out. Usyk ultimately used three minutes and forty-five seconds before the fight resumed. Usyk forced Dubois to take a knee in the eighth round and again in the ninth round, where he was counted out.^[6][7] According to CompuBox stats, Usyk had outlanded Dubois in every round of the fight, landing 88 of 359 punches thrown (24.5%) to Dubois' 47 of 290 (16.2%). Dubois failed to land double digits in any round of the fight.^[8]

Debate subsequently followed regarding the fifth round low blow as many observers felt it should actually have been ruled a legal punch and thus potentially resulted in a KO victory for Dubois. In his post-fight interview, Dubois opined: "I didn’t think that was a low blow. I thought that landed, and I’ve been cheated out of victory tonight.” However, Usyk's promoter Alex Krassyuk argued "The belly button is the line. Anything low of that is a low blow." This argument was echoed by others including boxers Tony Bellew and Liam Smith.^[9][10][11]

Usyk would agree to an undisputed showdown with Tyson Fury set for 17 February 2024 (later pushed back to May).

^Note 1 For WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO and The Ring World Heavyweight championships
^Note 2 Hamed's professional debut
^Note 3 For WBO International lightweight championship
^Note 4 For WBC Silver Middleweight championship
^Note 5 For vacant IBO Continental Light Heavyweight championship

Sources:^{[12][13][14][15]}