Deontay Wilder’s career as a top-level heavyweight came to a crashing halt. For Daniel Dubois, the journey has only just begun. And the incessant back and forth of boxing’s glamor division changed dramatically early Sunday morning in the an-Nafud desert.
Wilder, who held the WBC version of the heavyweight title from 2015 through 2020, suffered a brutal fifth-round knockout at the hands of Zhilei Zhang in the main event of a joint Matchroom-Queenbury card featuring the stables of major promoters of British boxing faced off. each other.
The crushing defeat marked Wilder’s fourth loss in his past five appearances and the likely end point for the 38-year-old fighter widely regarded as boxing’s biggest puncher, who had strongly hinted at retirement ahead of Saturday’s crossroads fight .
“I have to pay attention to his right hand, but I successfully took away his right hand,” Zhang said through a translator. “I block a few punches, but yeah. He hits hard. I give him a lot of respect. He’s a heavy puncher.”
Zhang, the 41-year-old from China’s New Jersey province of Henan, suffered a setback in December against Joseph Parker, losing on points despite scoring two knockdowns. But he spent the first four rounds with an eye-opening 60-pound weight advantage, methodically walking past the uncharacteristically timid Wilder, who looked the silhouette of the Alabama knockout artist who raced to a 40-0 record with 39 in the distance before he won the first part of his heavyweight championship trilogy with Tyson Fury in 2018.
Wilder woke from his slumber early in the fifth and landed a pair of wild right hands that took his mountainous foe back, but the abrupt offensive created openings that Zhang wasted little time on. Within moments he had turned Wilder backwards with a lead right hook that left the American stunned before catching him with a clear shot: a sunken right hook that dumped him on the seat of his trunk. Wilder managed to beat the 10-count, but he got up and the referee waved it off at 1:51.
The largely uneventful affair, until the explosive denouement, was in stark contrast to the fight before it, which saw Dubois upset the odds and take a big step towards a heavyweight title with an eighth-round stoppage of IBF mandatory challenger Filip Hrgović .
The twice-defeated Dubois, a 26-year-old from south-east London who suffered a knockout loss to eventual undisputed champion Oleskandr Usyk in August, took a huge amount of punishment in the opening rounds as Hrgović found traction with one punishing right hand after another . . But the Croat was cut across his right eye in the second round and across his left eye in the fifth, and his fitness deteriorated under the frenetic pace he set from the opening minutes.
On the seventh, Dubois stalked Hrgović around the ring, throwing and landing heavy blows as his heavily bloodied opponent retreated. Hrgović was rocked with a huge right hand at the end of the frame, followed by a pair of explosive shots along the ropes that could have ended the show without the bell.
Dubois picked up where he left off in the eighth, but it wasn’t long before referee John Latham called time and called for the ringside doctor to inspect Hrgović’s cuts. When the doctor appeared dissatisfied, Latham stopped the action 57 seconds into the round.
“I ate those shots, but it was all to wake me up,” Dubois said of his slow start. “After I felt a few shots and a few stings, I woke up and just dealt with it. I just thought, don’t wait. Do not wait.
“I came to him the lap before the last one. It just came together like magic. …I’m just so proud of myself for this. It’s all a learning experience. Last year I came from a low point and now we are back on top.”
Earlier, Liverpool’s Nick Ball gave Britain a second current male world champion by winning the WBA featherweight title from American Raymond Ford in a razor-thin 12-round split decision.
One judge scored 115-113 for Ford but was overruled twice by the same margin for Ball, who captured a world title in his second attempt after being cruelly denied in a controversial draw in March against Mexico’s Rey Vargas.
“He is a tough man and a class boxer. I had to dig deep to get the belt,” Ball said. “I’m made up. I should be twice [champion] but that is not the case. I’m champion now, so it doesn’t matter that much.”
The 27-year-old Merseysider finished strongly in a hugely entertaining back-and-forth battle that certainly demands a rematch. He joins WBO cruiserweight titleholder Chris Billam-Smith as Britain’s second man to currently hold a major world title.