Former cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew was highly critical of Daniel Dubois' recent performance against WBO, IBF, IBO, WBA heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.

Last Saturday night in Poland, Dubois was knocked out in the ninth round of the fight.

There was a controversial fifth round, where Usyk went down from a shot to the body that was ruled as being low. After taking several minutes to recover, Usyk resumed the fight and eventually dropped Dubois, twice, to secure the stoppage victory.

There has been blowback over Dubois' second knockdown - where the British boxer appeared to voluntarily stay down for nearly the full count and got to his feet as the referee was counting to ten.

Some believe Dubois had mentally checked out - and Bellew is among the observers who believe Dubois was fully capable of fighting on.

"Have we all forgotten that Daniel Dubois watched the referee count to 10 while on one knee? It’s not the first time he’s done it. It’s not unfair [to label him a quitter] because against Joe Joyce he had a fractured orbital bone and again he watched the referee count to 10 while on one knee and then when the referee gets to 10 he gets straight up. And he’s done it again now. I don’t want to call someone a quitter but a man told me in this very gym, his name was John ‘Duke’ Doolan, and he wasn’t the greatest coach but something he said stuck with me to this day. He said to me ‘son don’t you ever spew it.’ Spew it means to quit. The first time you spew it is the hardest and after the first time it only gets easier and easier and I’m sorry to say that Daniel Dubois has spewed it twice," Bellew said to Safe Betting Sites.

“People keep asking me why I only say it about Daniel Dubois? Well Kell Brook was a very good friend of mine in the past and we were both under the same platform at Matchroom. We both fought under Sky Sports and I commentated live on his fight against Errol Spence. I went live after that fight and said Kell Brook has just spewed it and it wasn’t his first time. He spewed it against Gennady Golovkin and he spewed it against Errol Spence. I’m sorry. He’s a far better fighter than me. I’ve got no problem with saying that but when the going gets tough he looks for a way out. Daniel Dubois is exactly the same. People say well why didn’t you say that about AJ against Andy Ruiz? AJ never quit, he was just completely exhausted and spent. He didn’t sit on one knee and watch the referee count to 10. The referee stopped it and actually saved him."