Daniel Dubois absolutely destroyed Anthony Joshua tonight, fully announcing his arrival as an elite heavyweight at Wembley Stadium.
Dubois dropped Joshua in the first, third, and fourth rounds before knocking him out early in the fifth round.
The win sees Dubois (22-2, 21 KO) maintain the IBF heavyweight title in his first defense. It was an absolute domination from the 27-year-old fighter, who has bounced back from two defeats at high level in his young career and emerged as a sincere and dangerous top heavyweight.
The knockout blow did come after Joshua had truly hurt Dubois, at which point he took the risk and tried to open up, walking onto a crushing right hand from Dubois that signaled the end.
“I’ve just been on a roller coaster ride, and this is my time, this is my redemption story,” Dubois said.
“He’s done brilliantly. Everybody here sees a champion’s performance tonight,” promoter Frank Warren said. “Two great fighters in the ring and a champion’s performance. He’s done everything asked of him.”
Asked what’s next for Dubois, Warren said they’d wait for the outcome of the Usyk vs Fury rematch in December, and that he “may want to be out again before Christmas,” which could suggest Dubois featuring on that card.
“I shouldn’t say he’s at the top of his game, I think he’ll improve as a fighter,” Warren added.
“Credit to him and his team, we rolled the dice and came up short,” Joshua said, saying that Dubois, simply, was what went wrong for him on the night. He admitted he was mad about his defeat, but gave Dubois his respect for the win.
Joshua (28-4, 25 KO) also said he will be back in the ring. “If I’m honest, I had a sharp opponent, a fast opponent, and there were a lot of mistakes on my end. That’s the game. As pissed off as I am, it is what it is.”
Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn added: “(Joshua) was fighting on heart and desire (after the first knockdown). I’m so proud of him because he never gave up. His legs were deceiving him and he just kept on trying. He hurt Daniel Dubois, and then he got greedy and walked straight onto a right hand, and that’s all she wrote. This is what can happen, but AJ never gave up.”
Hearn said he expects Joshua to execute the fight’s rematch clause. “Full credit to Daniel Dubois, it was a great performance.”
Undercard notes
- Middleweight contender Hamzah Sheeraz blasted through Tyler Denny inside of two rounds to lift the European middleweight title and retain his Commonwealth belt, and the WBC’s “silver” title which, when they feel like it, can mean something in terms of getting a mandatory order. Sheeraz (21-0, 17 KO) looks like the possible future of the middleweight division at 25, with his 6’3” frame and improving skills a potential nightmare for any of the division’s champions. But you never know until you know. Denny falls to 19-3-3 (1 KO).
- Joshua Buatsi got a deserved win over Willy Hutchinson, though it came with a bit of baffling scoring from judge Grzegorz Molenda, who had it 113-112 for Hutchinson, who was dropped twice and also docked a point, which means Molenda thought Hutchinson won eight rounds of this fight. The score is so bad that you almost assume Molenda just mixed up his columns while scoring the fight, but reversing the totals would still mean Molenda thought Hutchinson won seven rounds of the fight, so that’s no good. Just a terrible score. Buatsi (19-0, 13 KO) now has the interim WBO light heavyweight title, and the hope there might be more that the Beterbiev-Bivol winner will vacate than actually having to fight one of them in 2025. Hutchinson drops to 18-2 (13 KO) with a valiant effort in defeat, showed a lot of heart but was just beaten cleanly.
- Anthony Cacace handed Josh Warrington another loss, and retained his IBF super featherweight title even though it wasn’t actually on the line in the fight. Had Cacace lost, the IBF were set to strip him, but now he still has that belt and will have to face Eduardo “Sugar” Nunez next or also face being stripped. Cacace (23-1, 8 KO) had it tough with Warrington (31-4-1, 8 KO) in the early going, but as the fight wore on Warrington just didn’t have enough in the tank, and he’s now 1-4-1 in his last six. It was a good effort, but no, he wasn’t really close to winning this fight, and it looks like he’s likely going to retire. Scores were 117-111, 117-111, and 118-110.
- Josh Kelly improved to 16-1-1 (8 KO) in his middleweight debut, beating late replacement foe Ishmael Davis (13-1, 6 KO) by majority decision scores of 114-114, 115-114, and 115-113. It was a dull fight with Davis, 29, closing stronger than he started, but Kelly definitely deserved the win, probably even by a round or so more than he got on the cards. Kelly, 30, doesn’t really project to have any great future as a middleweight, but then middleweight is also very soft right now.
- To open the show, unheralded Josh Padley upset Mark Chamberlain, who has been weirdly hyped as Turki Alalshikh’s “favorite fighter,” over 10 rounds. Padley (15-0, 4 KO) came out of the small halls purely to be An Opponent in this fight, but he dropped Chamberlain (16-1, 12 KO) in the eighth round and Chamberlain also lost a point for holding in the ninth. That didn’t make the difference though, as the scorecards still would have been in Padley’s favor, though likely on a majority decision instead of unanimous. Judges had it 95-93, 96-92, 96-92. It’s a huge win for Padley, and the 28-year-old will likely get another shot on a Riyadh Season card, with a rematch very possible.