GRADES: OLEKSANDR USYK, DANIEL DUBOIS, JARED ANDERSON, OSCAR COLLAZO & MORE

By: Jay Calderon

Well, we had an eventful weekend of boxing to say the very least. And, by that, I mean we had Heavyweight clashes that involved a lot of body shots and potentially illegal shots below the belt. Like, a much higher amount of all that than should be the case.

Starting off in Poland, Oleksandr Usyk successfully defended his Heavyweight gold against Daniel Dubois, but not before being dropped by a shot the referee deemed below the belt. Plenty disagreed with the call.

Not to be outdone, we saw Zhan Kossobutskiy get disqualified for some shots to the gonads of Efe Ajagba on the Jared Anderson vs. Andrii Rudenko under card.

Then, with the cleanest of body blows, Anderson wiped out the aforementioned Rudenko with a body attack onslaught.

All that and a bit more. So, without much more ado, let's hand out these Grades:

OLEKSANDR USYK
GRADE: B+
RESULT: DEF. DANIEL DUBOIS, 9KO (HEAVYWEIGHT)
If you take away a single blow (and about 4.5 minutes), Oleksandr Usyk was about perfect against the outskilled Daniel Dubois. That being said, that low blow(?) landed in the fifth will be a strike against Usyk for some.

Still, close call on the nut shot notwithstanding, Usyk proved levels above Dubois, who seemed ready for the exit by the time Usyk started putting some hurt on him in the eighth and ninth rounds.

As has become typical for Dubois, he took a new when ragged too quickly and the bout was over soon thereafter.

DANIEL DUBOIS
GRADE: D+
RESULT: LOSS TO OLEKSANDR USYK, 9KO (HEAVYWEIGHT)
Daniel Dubois will get a lot of credit for being robbed against Oleksandr Usyk when his body blow (ruled low by the referee) dropped the Ukrainian hard in the fifth frame.

However, aside from that questionable moment? Typical Dubois.

Does he have power? Sure. Did he look a bit better fundamentally at times? Yeah. But what did he do when things got uncomfortable? Daniel did what feels most comfortable to him.

Took a knee. Outside of that one borderline moment, it was another half in/half out performance for Dubois.

JARED ANDERSON
GRADE: A
RESULT: DEF. ANDRII RUDENKO, 5TKO (HEAVYWEIGHT)
Body blows in Heavyweight contests was a big theme this weekend, and Jared Anderson's win over Andrii Rudenko certainly attributed to that.

The quick-handed big man needed just five rounds of an unrelenting body attack to wear his man down and ultimately stop him. Interestingly enough, few if any strayed even somewhat low, particularly newsworthy when you consider the amount he threw to the area.

So, that's nice.

EFE AJAGBA
GRADE: B
RESULT: DEF. ZHAN KOSSOBUTSKIY, 4DQ (HEAVYWEIGHT)
Continuing the trend of Heavyweight fights heavily influenced by low blows/body blows, we had Efe Ajagba's win over previouely-undefeated Zhan Kossobutskiy on the Anderson-Rudenko under card.

Ajagba smartly targeted the body at times, and Kossobutskiy seemed to think those shots were low. Some definitely were borderline. That said, Ajagba did the right thing by continuing to attack and take what the fight gave him.

Ultimately, Kossobutskiy got himself disqualified in the fourth when he seemed disinterested in the fight carrying on. It halted an otherwise impressive performance by Ajagba. Efe used nice range and subtle movement to frustrate Kossobutskiy much of the short-lived contest.

ZHAN KOSSOBUTSKIY
GRADE: F
RESULT: LOSS TO EFE AJAGBA, 4DQ (HEAVYWEIGHT)
Yeah, there's just no way around it: Zhan Kossobutskiy can claim Efe Ajagba low blowed him a few times, and he might even be right a few of those times. However, that doesn't excuse the performance overall.

Kososbutskiy seemed less interested in trying to win the contest as the fight wore on, resorting to winging looping shots, complaining to the referee and then speed-bagging Ajagba's testicles.

Finally (especially from Ajagba's balls' perspective), in the fourth frane, Zhan landed as blatant a shot as he could below the waist line, forcing the correct DQ call to be made. Terrible performance all around.

OSCAR COLLAZO
GRADE: A
RESULT: DEF. GAREN DIAGAN, 6TKO (STRAWWEIGHT)
In perhaps the most clinical performance of the weekend (maybe outside of Jared Anderson), Oscar Collazo successfully defended his gold against the highly over-matched Garen Diagan in Strawweight action.

To his credit, Diagan tried to make it messy, tried to make something happen in spurts. However, the quick, educated hands of Collazo overwhelmed his Filipino counterpart, forcing Diagen to retire on his stool in between rounds.

A solid, professional win for Collazo, who looks to be the goods thus far.

LINKS:

- SCHEDULE & ODDS

- RESULTS

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