The World Boxing Association (WBA) sanctioning body has dismissed the appeal of Daniel Dubois’ team to overturn his result against Oleksandr Usyk following their match on August 26th. The appeal had been filed on September 4th and was based on the 6th-round body shot by Dubois that dropped Usyk but was ruled an accidental illegal blow.

The WBA ruled there was no conclusive evidence that the presiding referee in the match between Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois was incorrect, citing that their observations did not note referee Luis Pabon to have ruled wrongly. The match between the two heavyweights eventually ended up in a 9th round stoppage victory for Usyk.

The WBA referred the case to the International Officials Committee, which reviewed it on September 11th, but they could not find clear-cut evidence of any wrongdoing on the part of the referee, thus the decision on the referee’s ruling of an accidental blow stands and the result will not be reversed.

The WBA also determined that the definition of a low blow is at the discretion of the referee, and since Luis Pabon’s decision was deemed correct, there was no viable case of any misconduct of any kind after the committee had reviewed Dubois ‘low blow’ thoroughly on video.

Though Dubois’ team had sent documents with a multitude of arguments in a bid to reverse the referee’s decision, the WBA ultimately made their conclusions based on their internal rules and an analysis on the title match between Usyk and Dubois.

This means good news for Oleksandr Usyk and his team who will suffer no penalty of any kind, while Daniel Dubois’ team will need to accept the decision as it stands.