Key events
That’s all for tonight. Thanks as always for following along and be sure to check back later for a full report.
Anthony Joshua, who says he picked Dubois to win, discusses the Briton’s career-best win on the telecast. “I just said that Dubois’s been in tougher fights,” Joshua says. “Even though he may have come up short once or twice, he’s been in tougher fights, so he becomes hardened. I feel like this was his chance to showcase what he’s been through. Just because you’ve been knocked down don’t mean that you can’t get up, so he’s got back up and he’s climbing up the ladder. He’s had a couple good wins now and we’ll see what happens in the near future.”
One potential opponent for Joshua’s next fight, which he hints could take place on 21 September, was the just-vanquished Wilder. Joshua is asked whether he thinks the American’s loss to Zhang spells the end of his career.
“It’s completely up to him,” Joshua says. “I can’t say. I just look at it and say, if you want to do it, do it. It’s not a big deal, boxing. If you want to fight, fight on, and if you don’t want to do it, don’t do it anymore.
“It’s just where your heart’s at. He went in there against a good fight out in Zhilei. He’s an Olympian, Zhilei, people forget that. He’s come through. He’s got a great style. I fought him before in the [2012] Olympics and he’s still doing what he does now, so many years on. So [Wilder] was in with a real good, seasoned professional with great pedigree. So it doesn’t matter. Come again if you want, and if you don’t, you got your family. There’s another life outside of boxing, bro.”
“I would like to thank every friend who come here from all over the world,” Zhang says through a translator. “I would like to thank the fans in China. It’s midnight over there, and you guys are watching me.”
Asked what was different between tonight’s fight and his December defeat to Joseph Parker, he says: “I lost to Parker. It was a fair loss. He was a better man that night. But I do think I learned a lot from that fight, because after I knocked out Joe Joyce [twice in 2023], I was overconfident and I underestimated Parker. So I learned that I had to stay focused. As long as the bell doesn’t ring, stay focused.”
He then briefly elaborates on his game plan for staying away from Wilder’s famously powerful right hand.
“I have to pay attention to his right hand, but I successfully took his right hand away,” he says. “I block a few punches, but hell yeah. He punches hard. I give him a lot of respect. He’s a heavy puncher.”
Zhilei Zhang beats Deontay Wilder by fifth-round KO!
Round 5
Out of nowhere Wilder comes alive early in the fifth, throwing a pair of wild right hands that move Zhang backward. Both men revert to caution. But Zhang catches Wilder the moment he opens up again. Wilder is stunned and spun around backward by a lead right hook then caught by Zhang with a free shot: a flush right hook that drops him to the seat of his trunks. He manages to beat the 10-count but the referee steps in almost immediately. It’s over!
Round 4
Zhang continues to back Wilder into the various corners of the ring … and do nothing with the Alabaman once there. Wilder now throwing range-finding right hands but doing little to trouble Zhang. Both fighters have been overly cautious in this one, taking no chances. The inaction of this snoozer (so far) is thrown into harsh contrast after Dubois-Hrgović.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 9-10 Zhang (Wilder 36-40 Zhang)
Round 3
Zhang keeps applying steady pressure, walking Wilder down while outthrowing and outlanding his American foe, just. Wilder throws a right hand but misses and gets clipped with a counter right that sends him back and to the side. The pub-room theory that Wilder emerged from the Fury trilogy a changed fighter has only gained steam after three rounds tonight. He’s only landed nine punches in nine minutes so far, according to Compubox’s punch statistics.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 9-10 Zhang (Wilder 27-30 Zhang)
Round 2
Zhang strikes first and looks to have hurt Wilder with an uppercut to the chest in the corner early in the round. But the American escapes immediate trouble and moves the action back to the center, where he scores with a one-two combination. Wilder simply not letting that right hand go. He’s timing the uppercut and right cross and waiting for a perfect moment that so far has not arrived.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 9-10 Zhang (Wilder 18-20 Zhang)
Round 1
Zhang, whose 68lb advantage looks even more imposing under the lights, immediately backs Wilder into a corner, imposing the size difference from go. It’s giving heavyweight v light heavyweight. Wilder paws with the left, his weapons-grade right tensely cocked. A very uneventful opening round with no significant scoring blows either way. Difficult to score, but Zhang shades it with his control of the center.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Wilder 9-10 Zhang (Wilder 9-10 Zhang)
The fighters are making their ringwalks. Zhang enters in a shimmering gold robe with black trim. Then it’s Wilder, who looks all business in a black gladiator-styled kit with gold lining.
Buffer is making the fighter introductions from the center of the ring. The final instructions have been given, the seconds are out and we’ll pick it up with round-by-round coverage from here!
Here’s a look at how Wilder and Zhang measure up. The 41-year-old Chinese southpaw outweighed Wilder by an eyebrow-raising 68.2 pounds at Friday’s weigh-ins, but is conceding one inch in height and three inches in reach
Now it’s time for the main event. Deontay Wilder, the longtime WBC heavyweight champion who made 10 title defenses between 2015 and 2020, faces China’s Zhilei Zhang in what’s being described as crossroads fight for both men.
“Full respect to Hrgović,” Dubois says. “He’s a good fighter and to come through that was just a learning experience for me. I’m glad I’ve got this IBF belt and on to the next.”
Asked about the slow start, Dubois says he leaned on his team’s support: “I don’t know, man. I was a bit cold to start off with, but I heard the corner advice. Frank Warren, my dad, and they’ve been supporting me from day one, and we’ll come for anything.
“I ate them shots, but it was all to wake me up. Once I’ve felt a few shots, a few stings, I woke up and I was just on it. I just thought don’t wait. Don’t wait.”
Asked when he thought he’d had Hrgović beaten, Dubois points to the violent seventh.
“The round before the last, I was getting to him. It was just coming together like magic. … I’m just so proud of myself for this. It’s all a learning experience. I’ve come from rock bottom last year and now we’re back on top.”
Dubois says that he’s heard his next opponent will be Anthony Joshua, the former two-time heavyweight champion who, incidentally, happens to be seated at ringside.
“I’m just anxious to to become the best,” he says. “This is my era. This is my time, and I just need to keep improving and [keep] coming through these tests.”
Daniel Dubois is the newly minted IBF interim heavyweight champion of the world! Michael Buffer makes it official. The ringside physician advised referee John Latham to call a half to the contest at the 0:57 mark of the eighth round. It’s a technical knockout for the British fighter nicknamed Dynamite, who surely lived up to that moniker in handing Hrgović the first defeat of his 18-fight professional career!
Daniel Dubois beats Filip Hrgović by eighth-round TKO!
Round 8
Dubois picks up where he left off in the seventh and Hrgović is in trouble. The referee calls time and the ringside doctor is going to take a close look at these cuts. And he doesn’t like what he sees! The referee waves his hands and he’s stopped it! It’s an eighth-round stoppage for Daniel Dubois in a career-best performance! Unbelievable!
Round 7
What a turnaround! Dubois is walking down Hrgović, throwing and landing shots with bad intentions. Hrgović is badly bloodied from the cuts, his trunks turned from white to pink. In the closing seconds Dubois rocks his foe with a massive right hand. The referee steps in to warn him, giving Hrgović precious seconds to recover. When they resume Dubois unloads with a couple of explosive shots along the ropes and Hrgović is clearly saved by the bell! Arguably a 10-8 round for Dubois. Hrgović in serious trouble.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Dubois 10-9 Hrgović (Dubois 65-68 Hrgović)
Round 6
Hrgović does enough to shade another very active round. He’s proven to be the better boxer but Dubois looks fresher and arguably stronger. Also, Hrgović appears to be cut over his left eye. Hrgović’s conditioning has given the Briton a massive opportunity despite (almostly certainly) being down on the cards entering the back half of the schedled 12 rounds.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Dubois 9-10 Hrgović (Dubois 55-59 Hrgović)
Round 5
Hrgović looks gassed but he continues to pursue Dubois wherever he goes. The blood is really leaking down into his right eye. Hrgović lands a massive one-two combination, but Dubois continues to answer with heavy shots of his own. Both men have all but abandoned the body. There’s very little to separate the pair after another action-packed round, but Hrgović seems to have landed the harder and more significant blows.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Dubois 9-10 Hrgović (Dubois 46-49 Hrgović)
Round 4
More reckless two-way action but Hrgović is getting the better of the exchanges overall. Dubois’s uncertain footwark is doing him a disservice. Hrgović is being troubled by the blood from the cut. Apparently, the official ruling is the cut was caused by a punch and not an accidental clash of heads as initially indicated. Another round for the Croat, but he’s starting to look fatigued.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Dubois 9-10 Hrgović (Dubois 37-39 Hrgović)
Round 3
These guys are slugging away at one another. Hrgović continues to score with the right but he’s leaving himself open. More right hands from Hrgović, who continues to tag Dubois upstairs. It’s some of the leakiest defense that we can recall in a top-flight heavyweight fight, but it’s been a fun scrap so far. Close round but Hrgović did more down the stretch to nick it.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Dubois 9-10 Hrgović (Dubois 28-29 Hrgović)
Round 2
Dubois lands a right hand early in the second but Hrgović fires back immediately. They have set a frantic pace; the chances of this one going the distance are remote. Dubois is still using a thudding jab to hold Hrgović off and it’s landing with the force of a power punch. Better work overall from Dubois in this round. He lands a powerful left hand near the bell and ties up before the Croatian can answer. There’s a cut on Hrgović’s forehead but the referee as ruled it came from an accidental clash of heads.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Dubois 10-9 Hrgović (Dubois 19-19 Hrgović)
Round 1
There’s the bell! Dubois, looking drier than you normally see fighters right before the first round, gets off to a positive start. He’s holding the center of the ring early and boxing behind a solid jab. Hrgović lands a crisp right cross. Then another. Oh boy. He’s punishing Dubois with the right hand, landing one after the other, turning his aggressive against him. Hrgović has landed no fewer than a half-dozen flush right hands in the first two minutes. Dubois holds on, showing indications of fatigue already.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Dubois 9-10 Hrgović (Dubois 9-10 Hrgović)
Ring announcer Michael Buffer has emerged from the tunnel. We’ve had a playing of Saudi Arabia’s national anthem, a brief instrumental rendition that’s played through quickly. Dubois makes his entrance at a canter to Michael Jackson’s Bad. Now it’s Hrgović, the Olympic bronze medalist from Zagreb, who paces to the ring with menace.
Buffer has made the fighter introductions. The final instructions have been given, the seconds are out and we’ll pick it up with round-by-round coverage from here!
Here’s a look at how Dubois and Hrgović measure up. Dubois, the Matchroom fighter who goes off as a roughly 2-1 underdog, is conceding an inch in height and four inches in reach to Queensbury’s Hrgović.
With Queensbury leading 6-0 in the team standings after three fights, Hearn and Matchroom will need stoppages by Hrgović and Wilder just to salvage a draw.
There could be even more at stake than meets the eye in the next fight between IBF mandatory challenger Filip Hrgović and Daniel Dubois. Specifically, the winner could be upgraded to world champion if Oleksandr Usyk relinquishes the belt or is stripped by the sanctioning body.
More from Reuters:
The BBC and talkSPORT reported on Friday that the contest had been “tentatively sanctioned” by the IBF to be for the interim heavyweight title.
The winner, if the interim title is confirmed, would then be upgraded should currently undisputed champion Usyk shed the IBF belt before a scheduled rematch with Tyson Fury in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in December.
Fury’s manager Frank Warren also represents fellow Briton Dubois.
Croatia’s Hrgović is unbeaten in 17 professional fights while Dubois has a record 20 wins and two defeats, including a loss to Ukrainian Usyk last August.
Usyk has requested an exemption from the US-based IBF to defend his belt against Fury, whom he beat this month to become undisputed champion, rather than have to face Hrgović first.
The BBC quoted the IBF saying it “does not have a timeline as to when the decision will be made on Usyk’s exception request”.
The IBF has previously stripped champions of titles for failing to fight mandatory opponents, with Fury losing a heavyweight belt in December 2015, 10 days after he took it from Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko.
Britain’s Lennox Lewis was also stripped of the IBF heavyweight belt in 2002.
“You really don’t want the belts to be fragmented, but you’ve got a guy (Hrgović) who has been ordered ages ago and has been waiting and waiting and waiting,” said the Croatian’s promoter Eddie Hearn.
“Maybe the winner of that has AJ (Anthony Joshua) next in line for the IBF. You can’t ignore your mandatory challenger for two or three years.
“He (Hrgović) is told, ‘You can’t get your title shot until the summer of 2025.’ It’s not fair. I get both sides of the argument, but I do expect the IBF belt to come vacant.”
Hrgović and Dubois should be making their ring entrances at Riyadh’s Kingdom Arena any moment now.
“I’m happy that I won,” Bivol says. “My [coaches] are happy. My team are happy. It makes me happy.”
Asked whether adjusting to a replacement opponent on a month’s notice created any unanticipated challenges, the Russian says: “We are professional boxers. We have to change our tactics at any moment, any second, even in the ring, and I have enough time to change my preparation for another fighter, the different fighter than Beterbiev.”
At this point Turki Alalshikh, chairman of the General Entertainment Authority and the driving force behind Saudi Arabia’s expanding influence in boxing, interrupts Bivol’s in-ring interview to announce that Bivol’s fight with Beterbiev for the undisputed light heavyweight title has been rescheduled for 12 October in Riyadh.
Bivol’s reaction is short and to the point: “I feel great. I need to be in focus. I have to be ready for October 12th. This is what I wanted.”
Dmitry Bivol has defended his WBA light heavyweight title in style. After a couple of rounds where he curiously appeared reluctant to let his hands go, the Russian backed Zinad into a corner with a flurry of 12 unanswered blows until referee Howard Foster intervened at the 2:06 mark of round six. It’s Bivol’s first win inside the distance since 2018, ending a drought of nine fights without a knockout, and it will only stoke the anticipation for his four-belt unification showdown with Artur Beterbiev.
We’d be remiss to not mention another fight of note, currently unfolding beneath the Kingdom Arena lights. Unrelated to the 5 vs 5 competition, Russia’s Dmitry Bivol is defending his WBA light heavyweight title against Malik Zinad of Libya. The unbeaten Bivol, a fixture on pound-for-pound lists since a 2022 win over Canelo Álvarez, was supposed to be fighting Artur Beterbiev tonight in a hotly anticipated four-belt unification fight for the undisputed title at 175lbs, but Beterbiev was forced to withdraw due to a ruptured meniscus suffered in training camp last month.
As a replacement opponent called up on a month’s notice in his first world title challenge against one of boxing’s most gifted technicians, Zinad is a 14-1 underdog on merit. He’s already been floored once, courtesy of a three-punch combination from Bivol punctuated by a crisp left hook. They’re into the fourth round and while Zinad has made things a touch more competitive than expected, it would seem to be little more than a matter of time against the far busier and more accurate Bivol.
Liverpool’s Ball becomes Britain’s second current male world champion
A special mention for Britain’s newest world champion: Liverpool’s Nick Ball. The 27-year-old Merseysider won a razor-thin split decision over Raymond Ford to capture Ford’s WBA featherweight title in a wildly entertaining back-and-forth scrap that surely demands a rematch.
Two judges scored it 115-113 for Ford while the third had it by the same margin for his American foe.
“He’s a tough man and a class boxer. I had to dig deep to get the belt,” said Ball, a world champion in his second try after being cruelly denied in a controversial March draw with Mexico’s Rey Vargas.
“I’m made up. I should be two-time [champion] but it’s not the case. I’m the champ now so it doesn’t really matter,” Ball added.
The Liverpudlian becomes England’s second active male world champion, joining WBO cruiserweight title-holder Chris Billam-Smith.
“It’s how you recover and come back,” Ball said. “That’s a true champion and that’s what I am now.”
Preamble
Hello and welcome to Riyadh’s Kingdom Arena for our round-by-round coverage of Deontay Wilder-Zhilei Zhang and Daniel Dubois-Filip Hrgović, a couple of fascinating heavyweight matchups that will help shape both the short- and long-term future of boxing’s glamour division.
They are the final two fights on a stacked card billed as ‘5 vs 5: Matchroom vs Queensberry’, where leading British promoters Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren, once bitter rivals, are putting their respective stables on the line for bragging rights and a reported $3m payday in addition to the fighters’ individual (and undisclosed) purses.
Under the rules of the format, each boxer will earn one point for a decision victory or two for a knockout with no points awarded in the case of a draw. The team captains – that’s Wilder for Matchroom and Sheeraz for Queensberry – will see their individual points doubled. The team with the most points overall wins. A tiny score bug on the top-left corner of the telecast has been tracking the running score all night. (We’d venture to guess it’s pretty meaningless for all but the most hardcore of British fight fans, but a rare team concept arguably the most individual of sports is nothing if not a conversation starter.)
Right now Queensberry is dog-walking Matchroom by a 6-0 margin with the two feature attractions to go. Here’s are the fight-by-fight results so far:
• Willy Hutchinson UD 12 Craig Richards QB 1-0 MR (QB 1-0 MR)
• Nick Ball SD 12 Raymond Ford QB 1-0 MR (QB 2-0 MR)
• Hamzah Sheeraz TKO 11 Austin Williams QB 4-0 MR (QB 6-0 MR)
We’ve got one more fight to come that’s not part of the 5 vs 5 competition (more on that in a moment). Then it’s Dubois v Hrgović and Wilder v Zhang, in that order.
Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s the big, erm, boxing news of the past 24 hours.
