LONDON: Daniel Dubois will put his International Boxing Federation world heavyweight title on the line on Saturday in a mouth-watering clash with Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium.
The pair will battle it out in front of a reported post-war British record crowd of 96,000.
Dubois has said this week he needed to justify his status as the IBF champion, which he claimed in June when Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk vacated the title.
For Joshua, it marks a chance at redemption and he has said a victory would finally end the difficult period he endured since a 2019 loss to Andy Ruiz and a pair of defeats against Usyk.
20:44 - With the main event looming, the penultimate fight of the night featured Tyler Deeny and Hamzah Sheeraz battling it out for the European Middleweight Title.
The hype was certainly flowing in Sheeraz’s favour and, with what was the first shot of the night he had Deeny on the mat.
After eight seconds he was up but it was an auspicious start, which Sheeraz followed up by backing him into the rope and unleashing blow after blow.
His height advantage showed. And in the second he had it, knocking Deeny down and rewarding Frank Warren’s faith in him.
There was more excitement emanating outside the ring as frontman of the newly reformed Oasis, Liam Gallagher, was spotted for the first time tonight.
Gallagher’s performance immediately before the main event tonight had been known for some time. But earlier this month, he and his brother Noel announced the first Oasis shows for 15 years.
Now the hype was mounting that maybe tonight there would be a preview of what those who landed tickets to next year’s shows could expect.
20:20 - This was a fight that really opened up in the sixth, with Britain’s Joshua Buatsi - entering the match up with 18 win, 13 by knock out - putting Scotland’s Willy Hutchinson - with 18 wins, 13 by KO and one loss - down.
The Scot was back up on the eight count but Buatsi went straight back in. If the preceding rounds had been tight, this was definitely the Brit’s.
And he opened the seventh in similar fashion, clearly hoping to capitalise on his success in the closing stages of the preceding round.
Hutchinson though wasn’t prepared to surrender, stirring the crowd with his own volley of attacks.
At the end of the seventh, the first images of Dubois flashed across the screens, garnering whoops for a now nearly full Wembley audience. It bears repeating that tonight, will see a record 96,000 at the home of English football.
Two minutes into the eighth and it seemed Hutchinson may again taste the mat, but he managed to keep to his feet and see the round out, before opening the ninth with a series of attacks that could have flipped things on their head before Buatsi again had Hutchinson down for another eight count, having pinned him into a corner with an uppercut before unleashing a left that sent him to the ground.In the tenth, Buatsi was wrong-footed, tripping onto the rope, but it remained very much his to lose.
Having gotten Hutchinson to the mat twice, Buatsi was not going to be rushed in the final round, instead willing to absorb the Scot’s final few attacks.
And then the bell went. We were again back to the judges.
As it did, the Scot was at a self-inflicted disadvantage, having been docked points for use of the head following repeated warnings in the earlier half of the bout.
Catching everyone in attendance off guard, the judges came to a split decision, but this was Buatsi’s night as he was crowned WBO Interim Light Heavyweight Title.
19:15 - Tonight’s first title fight as Ireland’s Anthony Cacace put the IBO Super Featherweight Championship he won in May on the line against Britain’s Josh Warrington.
Again, with the fight having gone the distance, it was fair to say a theme was emerging in the early stages of this Riyadh Season event, with the judges deciding the outcome.
Watching on in the role of commentator, former WBC Cruiserweight Champion Tony Bellew consistently rated Cacace as the better.
The positivity surrounding Cacace did not match his experience, the Irishman the less seasoned of the two, having won 22 of his 23 compared to his competitor’s 31 wins and 3 losses.
Bellew, providing his own scores throughout, considered it tight between the pair.
For the judges though, the situation was more clear cut, scoring it 118-110, 117-111, and 117-111, all in Cacace’s favour, as he retained the belt he’d won just four months earlier.
It seems that this may have also been the last of Warrington’s fights in what has been a glittering career for the proud Leeds man.
Those 31 wins of his twice brought him the IBF title he was vying for, with victories against the likes of Carl Frampton, Kiko Martinez, and Lee Selby.
18:15 - If the opening fight of this Riyadh season was a trial in patience, the second bout was its opposite.
A middleweight division fight, it featured Team GB representative at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Josh Kelly - who started today having fought 15 times, with 13 wins, 8 of which were by knock out - against the undefeated Ishmael Davis who’d stopped four of his last five fights.
Kelly was the clear favourite as far as the audience were concerned, having the back of 69 percent of those who voted.
And in the early rounds he certainly evidenced that faith.
Davis, however, seemed happy to absorb Kelly’s efforts in the early rounds.
The closing seconds of the fourth round whipped the audience up as both fighters traded blows.
But it would be in the final round that things heated up.
Barely a minute in, Davis elicited audible gasps from the watching crowd as shot after shot rained down on Kelly, opening up his face.
Davis could, metaphorically and literally, smell blood now.
And Kelly appeared shaken. But the bell went before a knock out.
Off the back of those three minutes, Kelly appeared the less assured of the two, seeming to motion to his team that he’d messed it up.
Again, we went to the judges.
The first scored it a draw at 114-114 each. The other two, though, determined a clear winner, scoring it 115-114 and 115-113 in Kelly’s favour.
17:00 - Opening the Riyadh Season, super lightweight fighters Mark Chamberlain and Josh Padley squared off at a rapidly filling Wembley Stadium.
With 96,000 due for the main event, those who were gathered for this first bout certainly made their voices heard.
Neither Chamberlain nor Padley had lost in their preceding respective 16 and 14 fights.
For Chamberlain, 12 of those victories had come by knock out, while Padley had landed knock outs in all of his.
This fight wasn’t to go that way, as chants of “Blue Army” - in reference to Chamberlain’s home city of Portsmouth - and “Padley” rang out.Indeed both pugilists seemed to recognise the quality of their opponent with the opening rounds proving tentative.
Of the two, Padley was the more aggressive, hurling a volley of shots.
Later, the stats would show Chamberlain had landed an ever so slightly higher percentage of his shots.
Eventually Padley’s determination would pay off, a left hook knocking chamberlain down halfway through the 8th round.
He was not down for long though.
And it seemed to spark some urgency in the Pompey lad.
But as the bell rang out to end the 10th round, Padley seemed far more assured he’d done enough to gain the judges favour.
And the audience agreed, with just 37 percent giving the win to Chamberlain. When the results were announced Padley had won unanimously, with the judges scoring it 95-93, 96-92, and 96-92 in his favour.
