Daniel Dubois stuns Anthony Joshua with vicious knockout to retain world heavyweight title

Daniel Dubois produced the performance of a lifetime to upset Anthony Joshua with a sensational knockout to successfully retain his IBF world heavyweight title at Wembley Stadium.

‘Dynamite’ dominated Saturday night’s mammoth all-British main event in front of a record crowd of 96,000 fans - the largest in British boxing history - at the storied home of English football, dropping a stunned Joshua four times in total in a commanding and utterly ruthless display that ended with an explosive fifth-round stoppage.

Such a momentous victory saw Dubois emphatically banish any lingering questions over his legitimacy as the IBF’s full heavyweight champion, having won the interim belt by stopping Filip Hrgovic on the inaugural Matchroom vs Queensberry 5v5 card in Saudi Arabia back in June before later being upgraded without ever stepping back into the ring as undisputed king Oleksandr Usyk relinquished the belt as he prepares for December’s highly-anticipated rematch with Tyson Fury rather than facing his mandatory challenger.

Dubois, continuing his ascendancy with three career-best wins in a row having also stopped both Jarrell Miller and Hrgovic, will now be the firm favourite to face the winner of that Usyk-Fury rematch in 2025, although it seems reasonable to think that epic rivalry could yet become a historic trilogy if Fury wins back in Riyadh before Christmas to tee up a potential decider next year.

Dubois previously challenged Usyk for his unified world titles in Poland last summer, stopped in the ninth round in a fight dominated by a low-blow controversy that Dubois felt had cheated him out of a major upset. He now wants a rematch with the Ukrainian, who, along with Fury, was among the scores of famous faces from the world of boxing, sport and celebrity present at ringside on a night to remember at Wembley.

For Joshua, a devastating loss is the fourth of his 32-fight professional career as he was denied a third reign as world heavyweight champion. The defeat brought an abrupt end to his impressive four-fight revival after losing twice to Usyk in 2021 and 2022, again raising serious questions about his future at the top of the sport’s blue riband division and once more dealing a sizable blow to his hopes of finally facing Fury in one of the biggest and most lucrative fights in boxing history.

However, he confirmed after the fight that he did plan to return to the ring, with promoter Eddie Hearn revealing the existence of a rematch clause that he expects Joshua to trigger in the future.

Having looked perfectly at ease with the size of the occasion during a composed pre-fight ring walk on the biggest night of his career so far, Dubois was ultra-aggressive from the opening bell, immediately finding a home in the centre of the ring and going to work behind his ramrod of a jab as he put Joshua under serious early pressure and never relented.

He doled out more heavy punishment in round two as Joshua struggled to get his bearings or establish any sort of a rhythm under such a heavy onslaught and constant bombardment.

Joshua’s glove appeared to touch the canvas as he took another beating towards the end of round three, but it was not counted as a knockdown before Joshua was then flattened again seconds later before beating the referee’s count after the bell.

Joshua was put down once again in the early stages of round four, but another visit to the canvas was not ruled as a knockdown as the referee allowed proceedings to continue with the two-time champion clinging on desperately.

It was to prove a short-lived reprieve however despite Joshua beginning to land some heavy shots of his own early in the fifth and appearing to buckle Dubois as a true heavyweight firefight threatened to break out, the champion finishing the night with a brutal short right hook that detonated flush on the chin and left Joshua sprawled out on the floor with no hope of a comeback and a one-sided contest waved off.

On Saturday night’s stacked undercard, which was followed by a pre-reunion three-song performance of ‘Definitely Maybe’ Oasis classics from Liam Gallagher, undefeated middleweight contender Hamzah Sheeraz further underlined his incredible potential with a ruthless second-round stoppage of Tyler Denny to add the European title to his WBC Silver and Commonwealth belts.

Joshua Buatsi claimed a split-decision win over the determined Willy Hutchinson in a thrilling and brutal light-heavyweight contest to become the WBO interim champion, while Anthony Cacace successfully retained his IBF and IBO super-featherweight world titles with a wide points victory against Josh Warrington, who appeared to strongly hint at retirement after his fourth defeat in six fights after ceremoniously laying out his gloves in the middle of the ring before departing backstage.

A bloodied Josh Kelly - who was originally supposed to face Liam Smith until six days ago - withstood a 12th-round surge to defeat late replacement opponent Ishmael Davis after a huge upset to open the night, with the much-fancied Mark Chamberlain stunned on points by British middleweight rival Josh Padley.