How Anthony Joshua was swallowed alive by Daniel Dubois: JEFF POWELL on Dynamite’s night which leaves AJ’s career in tatters, left him curled up like a baby and puts a Tyson Fury fight in doubt

Daniel Dubois pulled off the biggest upset of the century. He threw enough right hooks to catch a whale, let alone knock out Anthony Joshua, and he dramatically launched the world’s heavyweight elite into the next generation.

The 27-year-old Londoner not only retained his IBF championship but also dispelled the myth that the majority of the boxing world believed that Joshua, who was almost 35, could become a three-time world heavyweight champion.

For the British Olympic gold medallist and long-reigning master of the British ring, retirement seems more likely than joining that elite company. For Dubois — after one of the greatest nights Wembley or any other arena has ever witnessed — the world is his oyster.

For starters, he swallowed Joshua alive here. Four knockdowns in less than five rounds was only half the battle. From the start, in the form of a huge right for the first knockdown, Joshua staggered and leaped through a fog of desperation.

If the referee had been strictly following the rules, he would have counted at least an eight in every round. Of the two giants who are billed as the toughest boxers today, Dubois was a cannon versus a pistol.

What will hurt Joshua most — even more than the fact that he failed to wrest the IBF belt from the young reigning champion — is that his legendary left jab was outclassed. Simply cast aside.

AJ can only admire the fact that he always manages to get back on his feet after such astonishing blows.

Incredibly, too, before the fatal shot in the fifth round, he himself called for a Hail Mary, which stopped Dubois in his tracks to glory. If only for a moment, before he fell asleep on the canvas like a curled baby.

The future of heavyweight boxing has been rewritten and the fortune Saudi Arabia invested in the toughest sport has been redistributed.

Whether the long-awaited — perhaps too long, if we’re honest — Battle of Britain between Joshua and Tyson Fury will ever happen is now the question.

There’s a new leader in the ring and a $100 million fight without him doesn’t seem like a very appealing prospect.

Even the most spectacular pre-match show, with all the fireworks, could not surpass Dynamite Daniel.

The stadium slowly filled up as 96,000 ticket buyers, ensuring their safety, cautiously made their way to the sold-out seats.

A new record, the promoters claimed. Well, at this new Wembley anyway. Not at the old site with the Twin Towers. On an April afternoon in 1923, in the first football match played at the original Wembley, Bolton Wanderers won the FA Cup by beating West Ham United 2-0 in what became known as the White Horse Final.

The game got its name because a police dog named Billy made the kick-off possible by pushing thousands of fans off the field, about a metre behind the touchline.

The official attendance of 126,407 for the match included King George V, who was among the small minority who were seated. Unofficial estimates of the crowd in the stands ranged between 300,000 and 330,000.

The only royal figure present to see Joshua and Dubois fight was the Gypsy King.

There were cheers as Tyson Fury took his seat ringside, next to Oleksandr Usyk, who he will face during Christmas week in Riyadh in a rematch for the remaining heavyweight titles.

Win that, or lose a second time to the Ukrainian war mascot, Fury looked on in the hope that his next appearance at Wembley would be in another British blockbuster, the long-heralded showdown with Joshua. Although Saudi Arabia is in the planning stages of an even more monumental stadium in the desert.

Either way, there are more mega-millions to be made by these Goliaths of the prize ring. As long as they keep delivering Sheikh, Rattle and Roll thrillers.

This time it was Joshua and Dubois’ turn to keep the Arab paymasters on the edge of their seats.

In the alphabet world of big-time boxing, AJ and DDD were sold by their promoters as big hitters who would give their all in their famous power to blast their way to the IBF title, and thus keep the Riyadh season on the road.

Dubois and Joshua had played their part in the build-up to the match, having gotten into a fight during a TV promo and then threatening to tear each other apart.

Otherwise, during fight week, Joshua, accustomed as he is to these big occasions, would have been the cool cat. Relaxed, smiling and eloquent. The closer the big night got, the more tense Dubois became.

He banged on a table when he objected to a question and gave short one-, two-, or three-word answers to others.

Such is the pressure cooker atmosphere of nights like this. The volume rises as a group of celebrities are cheered to the rafters as they appear on the giant screens. Whether they are A-list or Z-list.

Liam Gallagher brought it to a head with his performance of a number of hits featured on the Oasis reunion tour.

The gladiators are coming, more serious eardrum bursting is coming. Things were downright jumpy on this fall night as Dubois and Joshua entered a bear pit through rings of fire and under fireworks that exploded into the night sky above the stadium.

The challenger initially started off to the tune of The Godfather – as befitted his higher status in this confrontation – with Dubois accompanied by his trainer Don Charles, who was reported fired earlier in the week.

The national anthem of Saudi Arabia, which funded this spectacle in North London, and God Save The King were sung with varying degrees of enthusiasm before Michael Buffer called them Ready to Rumble.

After the spectacle, this fight had a lot to live up to. Fortunately, it did.