“Usyk’s performance against Dubois was weak. It happened at the level of this opponent, but it will get worse in the future” – coach Gassieva

Alexandre Usik demonstrated a weak performance in a duel with the British Daniel Dubois and in the future his form will decline. The coach shared this opinion with Murata Gassieva Vitaly Slanov.

Usyk defeated Dubois by technical knockout in the ninth round of the championship match, which took place on August 26 in Wroclaw (Poland). In the fifth round, he himself found himself on the canvas after a missed body blow and did not immediately get up. The referee recorded a low blow and allowed the current WBA (Super), WBO, IBF, IBO and The Ring champion to take a five-minute medical timeout.

— Everything about this fight comes down to the events of the fifth round (when Dubois’ blow was considered a low blow). A very controversial point… It’s very difficult to say for sure. But here the question is for the judge: it was necessary to either count the overthrow or issue a warning. I remember Andre Ward’s blow against Sergey Kovalev (during the rematch between the boxers in June 2017, when after Ward’s blow under the belt, Kovalev was knocked out – Note “”.) Ward’s blow was lower and more incorrect than Dubois’ move.

But overall, I would rate Usik’s performance as weak. He showed 50 percent of what he had shown before. At Dubois level, it works, but then it will get even worse. Age probably affects. Usik is a fast and distant boxer. Power Style boxers last longer,” Slanov said in an interview with .

— Croatian Filip Hrgovic (31 years old, 16-0, KO 13) is designated as Usik’s next opponent.

— By the way, Hrgovic is a good boxer. Yes, not a star, but still. We will see,” Slanov said in an interview with .

Murat Gassiev will fight alongside Swede Otto Wallin on September 30 in Belek, Turkey. Watch live broadcasts of boxing tournaments on the TV channels of the Match holding company, as well as on the sites sportbox.ru and matchtv.ru.