You’d be forgiven if you didn’t know Daniel Dubois entered Saturday’s fight with Anthony Joshua as IBF heavyweight champion. Dubois was the underdog and treated as the B-side of the fight in almost every way. That didn’t deter Dubois from dominating Joshua en route to a fifth-round knockout to retain his title.
Dubois dominated the action from the opening bell. The champion came out as the aggressor, fighting off the front foot and throwing constant shots at the two-time former champion. That strategy paid off early, with Dubois dropping Joshua with a left hand in the final seconds of the opening frame.
Joshua beat the referee’s count but looked to be on unsteady legs. It never got better for Joshua as he was dropped again in the third and fourth rounds before being put down for good in the fifth.
The knockout came just seconds after Joshua’s biggest moment of the fight. Joshua had finally connected cleanly on a right hand that wobbled Dubois’ legs. As he charged forward trying to flurry and finish Dubois, Joshua left himself wide open to a right hand that dropped him to the canvas and unable to will his body to stand before the referee’s count reached 10.
“It’s been a long journey,” Dubois said after the fight. “I’m grateful to be in this position. … I’m a gladiator. I’m a warrior to the bitter end. I’m just ready to go. I want to go to the top level of this game and reach my potential.”
Joshua made it clear he had no plans to retire after the loss, the third of his career and the second by knockout, and promoter Eddie Hearn said he believed Joshua would execute the rematch clause in his contract to face Dubois again.
“You know what it is, before I came here, I said I’m a fighter for life,” Joshua said. “We rolled the dice for success and we came up short but we keep rolling the dice.”
Dubois may have to accept the rematch should Joshua and his team follow through on activating the clause, but he also expressed interest in a fight with Oleksandr Usyk. Usyk defeated Dubois by TKO in 2023, retaining the IBF, WBO and WBA titles in the process. Usyk went on to become undisputed champion by defeating Tyson Fury this past May.
The IBF stripped Usyk for going forward with a contractually-mandated rematch with Fury, which is set to take place on Dec. 21, and Dubois was elevated from interim to full champion.
Should Usyk beat Fury in the rematch, Dubois could get his shot at redemption and it could come in the form of a fight to crown an undisputed heavyweight champion.
The undercard saw a mixed bag of results, but the most stunning was Josh Padley scoring a massive upset of Mark Chamberlain in the opening bout of the card. Chamberlain entered the night as the biggest favorite at around -1800. Padley made it look easy in thumping Chamberlain, including a knockdown, en route to a unanimous decision win. Elsewhere, Hamzah Sheeraz made quick work of Tyler Denny in a second-round knockout at middleweight. Sheeraz, 25, moved to 21-0 with 17 knockouts on his resume.
CBS Sports was with you the whole way on Saturday with live results and highlights below.
Fight card, results
- Daniel Dubois (c) def. Anthony Joshua via fifth-round knockout
- Hamzah Sheeraz def. Tyler Denny via second-round knockout
- Joshua Buatsi def. Willy Hutchinson via split decision (112-113, 117-108, 115-110)
- Anthony Cacace def. Josh Warrington via unanimous decision (118-110, 117-111, 117-111)
- Josh Kelly def. Ismael Davis via majority decision (114-114, 115-113, 115-114)
- Josh Padley def. Mark Chamberlain via unanimous decision (95-93, 96-92, 96-92)
Joshua vs. Dubois scorecard, live coverage
| Joshua | 8 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 33 | ||||||||
| Dubois (c) | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | KO | 40 |
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