DANIEL DUBOIS is "distraught" after having his world title dream "stolen from" him in his Polish punch-up with Oleksandr Usyk.
Triple D failed in his bid to become a unified heavyweight champion on a wet night in Wroclaw last Saturday, suffering a ninth-round TKO defeat to boxing's former pound-for-pound king.
Dubois thought he'd fulfilled his dream of becoming world champion when he sent Usyk hurtling to the canvas with a crushing body shot in the fifth round.
But the shot was adjudged to have been an illegal blow by referee Luis Pabon, a decision head coach Don Charles says has left him "confused" and crestfallen.
The veteran coach told SunSport: "He's not in a good state right now, he's distraught. He had his dream snatched away from him."
Dubois' confidence faded after the four-minute break in the action, after which undefeated Ukrainian Usyk turned up the heat in front of thousands of his countrymen.
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Charles said: "From that moment onwards, the momentum shifted. Usyk using his superior experience and his masterful boxing to get out of that situation.
"He was allowed to escape from that situation. The fight was finished, the fight should've ended there and then in round five with a KO.
"Not even a TKO, a KO. I feel violated, I feel wounded. My fighter, he's a young guy. He's not a guy that says a lot.
"Luckily for us, he has a nice tight family unit and his father is a very strong character who is going to hold him together.
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"I'm going to do what a coach does mentally. It's not even physical, it's mental."
The boxing world is split over the legality of Dubois' stomach stomach-crunching body shot and the height of Usyk's groin guard, the latter issue of which Charles raised with the ref just minutes before the fight.
The 61-year-old said: "Usyk is known for wearing his guard extremely high.
"We've got footage of the referee reading our rules in the dressing room 45 minutes prior to the fight.
"He said to us, 'Do you have any questions?' I said, 'Yes, I do.'
"'Can you Usyk wears his groin guard where it's supposed to finish?'
"And he said, 'Fine'. No such thing happened.
"Before the bell rang, he's supposed to point to the two fighters and say, 'This is good, this is not good.'
"He's supposed to say, but he missed the protocol."
Dubois and his promoter Frank Warren plan to formally appeal the result of the fight, a decision Charles will back wholeheartedly.
Charles said: "We will push this to the max because we want justice."
Despite venting his frustrations on Instagram, Dubois isn't known for airing his grievances in the public domain.
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Charles, however, is happy to publicly fight his man's corner, saying: "I have to speak up on behalf of the family and the fighter.
"For me, I'm 61 – 62 this year – how many more years will it take me to get back to this level? It just got stolen from us."
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