Daniel Dubois fought the bout of his life to knock out British boxing star Anthony Joshua in the fifth round to defend his IBF heavyweight title at sold-out Wembley Stadium on Saturday.
Dubois came out aggressively and used his jab to control the distance and walk down Joshua. He dropped Joshua with a monster right hand at the end of the first, with Joshua barely surviving the round.
Joshua was still stunned to start the second and Dubois stayed aggressive, but Joshua seemed to recover by the end of the round.
But Dubois never slowed and proceeded to drop Joshua in the third, fourth and fifth and final round.
Joshua was actually landing his best shots of the night in the fifth when he got careless and Dubois walloped him with an overhand right. Joshua dropped to the canvas and referee Marcus McDonnell waved it off with 2:03 left in the round.
Joshua, 34, has now lost to Andy Ruiz, Oleksandr Usyk twice and now Dubois, and you have to wonder about his chin and just how much he has left as a championship contender. He had regained momentum after knocking out former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in the second round in March, but Dubois, 27, proved his boxing mettle.
Dubois had his doubters after many believed he quit in a 2020 loss to Joe Joyce, but he stood up to the former champion and completely dominated him. After the bout, Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s promoter, said he believed Joshua would exercise his rematch clause with Dubois.
With the heavyweight championship rematch between titleholder Usyk and Tyson Fury scheduled for Dec. 21, it make sense for the winner to perhaps face the winner of a possible rematch between Dubois and Joshua. Still there is a long way to go to get to that point and anything could happen in the world of boxing.
Joshua dropped to 28-4 (25 KOs) while Dubois improved to 22-2 (21 KOs) and answered any remaining questions about his fighting spirit and his ability to handle the pressure and immense energy at Wembley.
