AfriqueCAN
Billed as Anthony Joshua’s next stop on a comeback tour, a record Wembley crowd of 98,128 were left stunned as Daniel Dubois confirmed his credentials on the world heavyweight stage by dismantling the former two-time world champion.
Looming over the Wembley Edition of this Riyadh Season was the specter of Tyson Fury, who took a seat for the first of the undercards, the camera repeatedly cutting to him amid great applause from the gathering crowd.
Fury’s presence added only further fuel to the fiery demand for a long sought-after Joshua-Fury bout, which would bring the two biggest names in British boxing of the past decade together, but Joshua first had to get past IBF Heavyweight Champion Dubois.
It may have been Dubois’ belt at the start of the night, but Joshua entered to a medley beginning with “The Godfather” theme, before Jay Z’s “Public Service Announcement.”With the song’s line “allow me to reintroduce myself,” here wasCertainly, the crowd — pumped by a three-song Oasis set from the frontman of the newly reformed band, Liam Gallagher — and the experts concurred with that assessment.
Dubois’ opening volley, however, suggested that he was unphased by his underdog status.
And it was not long before he connected with a thunderous, and likely decisive, overhand right, putting Joshua to the floor for the first of what would be four times over the course of the bout, leaving the bumper crowd in shock.
Dubois carried the momentum into the second, and that overhand right seemed to hang over Joshua, whose legs trembled throughout as multiple shots from the champion hit hard and true.
Another hard left from Dubois unnerved Joshua as he stumbled in the final 10 before going down as the bell tolled. Nearby spectators were shocked, with one saying: “I can’t believe what I’m seeing here.”
Two more knock-downs followed in the third, although the second rather unconvincingly was ruled a slip as unified champion Oleksandr Usyk watched on, likely growing more and more convinced that Dubois would be among his pending fights.
Dubois was unrelenting, but in the fourth, Joshua showed signs of the determination that had seen him previously rebuild from career setbacks; after goading and mocking the titleholder, Joshua finally landed a convincing shot before the bell went.
That new momentum carried into the fifth and it seemed that a miraculous comeback could be on the cards as again Joshua connected with Dubois. Sensing an opening, he went for the double, in a move that his manager Eddie Hearn would later call greedy.
In that moment, Dubois spotted a chance, landing a counter-right that put the challenger down for the fourth and final time, his team in the corner moving to save him from himself as he scrambled to beat the count. It was to be Joshua’s fourth loss in 32 bouts.
After the winner had been declared he took to the mic, though, to suggest that he was not done yet, despite many already suggesting this had been something of a last chance saloon for the fighter.Seemingly, the commentariat’s short memories drove that narrative; had Joshua won, he would have emulated the likes of Muhammad Ali, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis as a three-time world champion.
Confident that he was not yet set for retirement, Joshua recognized his own failings over the course of the five rounds, admitting that he had come up against a “fast and sharp opponent … a lot of mistakes from my end.”
Dubois, though, delivered not only the best shots of the night, but also the best line, yelling to the crowd “Are you not entertained?” He was quoting the Russell Crowe movie “Gladiator,” in reference to Joshua having described himself as just that.
“I’ve been on a rollercoaster run; this is my time, my redemption story,” Dubois added, after it appeared that he may have silenced those critics who had doubted his true potential in the buildup.
“I want to get to the top of this sport and reach my full potential,” he said.
A Joshua win would almost certainly have ramped up expectations that, finally, now would be the time the much-hyped, long sought-after dust-up with Fury happened — a fight the Saudi sport authority would have been only too keen to host.
But as Joshua dusted off his wounds, it appeared that Fury had already left the stage, leaving hopes of that prospective bout in tatters, as one spectator walked past asking: “What have we just witnessed here?”