The landscape of the heavyweight division has shifted tremendously after Daniel Dubois defeated Anthony Joshua on September 21st to net the best victory of his career. The two British heavyweights headlined an all-British card at the Wembley Arena in London, with multiple British promotions having contributed to the event that was primarily sponsored by Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Season.

Anthony Joshua Vs. Daniel Dubois

Daniel Dubois (22-2, 21 KO’s) entered the ring as the IBF heavyweight (200+ lbs) champion while, Anthony Joshua (28-4, 25 KO’s), found himself the challenger on fight night. Preceding their significant main event fight were the contrasting expectations, with Joshua considered as the favorite due to his pedigree and previous tenure as a unified champion, while Dubois was considered the less seasoned fighter due to his age.

However, the match between the two reversed the roles of the two heavyweights once the ring started. Early on in the 1st round, Daniel Dubois showed a sign of things come when he started pressuring Anthony Joshua early on the front foot. Joshua, who usually attempts to find his range before fully engaging with his opponents, quickly found himself overwhelmed due to a lack of defensive fundamentals, and with just roughly a minute to go, the former unified champion found himself floored after a grazing right hand to the chin by Dubois―following a lethal combination of punches.

The knockdown that Joshua suffered and got up from turned the match around and would leave a precedent for Dubois to follow the rest of the fight. In the 2nd round, Joshua barely held on, apparently still on weakened legs due to the knockdown, and the result was him losing the round clearly as he once more put up an inadequate defense and no effort in countering or attacking which led to Dubois taking over the round and staggering Joshua several times.

Throughout the round, Dubois proved himself to be quicker and more accurate, with his jabs, crosses and hooks all seeming to land whereas Joshua largely missed the few times he did retaliate.

By the 3rd round, the dominance on display by Dubois had clearly put him in the lead, and the round proved to be no different for the IBF champion as he continued his onslaught, again showing a devastating jab while the combinations he unleashed seemed impossible to be stopped. As a result, Joshua found himself knocked down in the 3rd round once more as Dubois’ pressure simply overwhelmed in the latter seconds.

The 4th round was again a complete slaughterhouse, with Dubois taking roughly 10 seconds when the round knocked Joshua down again with a slew of fast combinations―though it could be interpreted as a slip from certain angles. Nonetheless, while the intensity of the round diminished compared to the previous ones, Joshua was clearly on his last legs during the 4th round and he barely survived following the knockdown.

The 5th round proved to be the decisive and final round despite Anthony Joshua finally visibily hurting Dubois. As a combination from Joshua sent Dubois into retreat and into the corner, Joshua sought to press Dubois and end the fight in a slugfest, but he a right-handed counter from Joshua amidst an exchange sent him to the canvas for the fourth time. Joshua struggled to scramble up from the knockdown, and despite his best efforts, he failed to beat the count of 10 by the referee, allowing Dubois to claim a stunning victory by knockout (KO).

Daniel Dubois retained his IBF title in a match that will long be remembered for both the performance that he put up, managing to demolish one of the most experienced and elite heavyweights of the modern era in Anthony Joshua.

With Joshua’s loss, the 4th of his career, a new era has emerged with Daniel Dubois having distinguished himself as a unstoppable rising star, while Anthony Joshua appears to have reached the end of his career. Defensive weaknesses aside, the knockdowns Joshua suffered can have caused irreparable damage for him in the future, but aside from the physical damage there is further a huge gulf in mental trauma to overcome with Joshua having been virtually embarrassed throughout the match.

Undercard Results:

• British middleweight (160 lbs) contender Hamzah Sheeraz (21-0, 17 KO’s) very likely distinguished as the #1 contender in the division after a he fully dominated EBU European champion Tyler Denny (19-3-3, 1 KO’s) to eventually stop him in the 2nd round. Prior to the stoppage, Denny found himself knocked down twice to already tilt the cards heavily in favor to Sheeraz.
  
• Top-rated British light-heavyweight (175 lbs) contender Joshua Buatsi (19-0, 13 KO’s) defeated Scottish contender Willy Hutchinson (18-2, 13 KO’s) by split-decision with only one contentious score by one of the judges [112-113 in favor of Hutchinson] the only outlier in a match where Buatsi knocked Hutchinson down twice, and clearly won most of the rounds―though a fair amount were won by just a hairbreadth. The rest of the judges’ scorecards were 115-110 and 117-108 in favor of Buatsi. Hutchinson was also deducted a point for headbutting.
  
• IBF super featherweight (130 lbs) champion Anthony Cacace (23-1, 8 KO’s) [the IBF title was not on the line for this match] completed a virtual demolition job over his opponent, Josh Warrington (31-4-1, 8 KO’s), over the course of 12 rounds, earning a deserving unanimous decision (UD) victory as a result.
  
• At middleweight, ironically enough, two established British super welterweights (154 lbs) in Josh Kelly (16-1-1, 8 KO’s) and late replacement Ishmael Davis (13-1, 6 KO’s) had a closer-than-expected bout that went the full 12 rounds. Kelly won by majority decision with narrow scorecards of 115-113, 115-114 and 114-114.
  
• British lightweights (135 lbs) Mark Chamberlain (16-1, 12 KO’s) and Josh Padley (15-0, 4 KO’s) opened up the card in a lightweight non-title bout scheduled for 10 rounds. It would be Padley who would come out in top in a competitive fight, winning by UD with scorecards of 96-92 twice, and 95-93 in a bout that saw Chamberlain get knocked down once, and slammed with a point deduction for pushing.