Daniel Dubois believes a foul took place in his bid to seize Oleksandr Usyk’s unified heavyweight titles.  

Just not the one that has sparked an ongoing debate.

The hulking Brit believed he scored a fifth-round knockdown when a right hand hurt and dropped Usyk in their title consolidation bout Saturday evening in Wroclaw, Poland. The sequence was ruled a low blow by referee Luis Pabon, who determined that enough of Dubois’ glove landed below the Ukrainian’s beltline. Usyk was allotted and used nearly the full five-minute recovery period, which has created an assumptive argument that he would not have beaten the referee's count if the punch was deemed legal.

Usyk (21-0, 14KOs) went on to twice drop Dubois (19-2, 18KOs) en route to a ninth-round knockout victory for the second defense of his WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight belts. The unbeaten two-division champ was asked afterward whether Dubois hurt him at any point, to which he quipped, “Only my balls.”

Dubois’ pain ran much deeper.

“I respect the man. A great Champ who gave me a hard fight and one I will learn from,” Dubois said in a public statement released Sunday through his verified social media channels. “But the only hit in the balls last night was the one I suffered when I didn’t get my arm raised after I landed this shot.”

Dubois won four straight prior to his title bid, which included a sixth-round knockout of Trevor Bryan to win the WBA ‘Regular’ heavyweight title last June 11 in Hollywood, Florida. His knockout loss removed the secondary title from existence, in line with the sanctioning body’s ongoing title reduction policy.

Hall of Fame promoter Frank Warren has been vocal in his determination to appeal the outcome of the fight and have the official result invalidated. Pabon’s failure to identify the legal scoring area during final pre-fight instructions has contributed to the ongoing debate and could serve as part of any filed protest, though the best-case scenario is for the WBA to order an immediate rematch.  

For now—and as previously reported by BoxingScene.com—Usyk will have to next brace for an incoming order from the IBF to face mandatory challenger Filip Hrgovic (16-0, 13KOs).

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox