LONDON — Daniel Dubois is no longer the accidental heavyweight champion of the world.
By knocking out Anthony Joshua in the fifth round in front of 96,000 fans at Wembley Stadium, Dubois proved he was the real deal and the future of boxing's main division.
“Isn't this fun?” Dubois shouted to the crowd after winning the British title and completing his attempt to legitimize his status as heavyweight titleholder, three months after winning the IBF belt vacated by Oleksandr Usyk.
The 27-year-old Dubois entered the ring first – an unusual development given he is the champion – to reinforce the impression that the bout was being treated as a homecoming for Joshua, a decade-old British boxing sensation seeking to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Muhammad Ali and Lennox Lewis as a three-time heavyweight champion.
Dubois knocked Joshua down in the first and third rounds before ending the bout with a counter right 59 seconds into the fifth round, slamming Joshua's face into the canvas and leaving the ring as the heavyweight division's next big thing.
Joshua's corner threw in the towel, but there was no need for it – a boxer whose prime seemed behind him and who was unlikely to return.
“This is my time, my story of redemption,” said Dubois, who has positioned himself to potentially fight the winner of the rematch between WBA, WBC and WBO champion Usyk and Tyson Fury on Dec. 21. “I'm not going to stop until I reach my full potential.”
Meanwhile, the underdog Joshua has vowed to keep boxing after his fourth defeat in the last five years, and promoter Eddie Hearn said he wanted to exercise his rematch clause.
However, this was his worst defeat to date: Joshua was saved by the bell after being knocked down in the first and third rounds, but performed shaky throughout the bout, with Dubois effortlessly breaking through his defences.
Joshua was knocked down by an overhead right late in the first round and never recovered, sticking his tongue out at Dubois as he returned to his stool, clearly hurt, confused and defenseless.
Late in the third round, Dubois landed a powerful left punch that knocked Joshua down, sending him falling face-up over the ropes.
“He was sharp and fast,” Joshua said, “but a lot of the mistakes were my own.”
Britain witnessed a generational change in post-war boxing attendance, with record numbers.
Joshua has been a marketing sensation for the past decade, selling out stadiums in Britain and raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, mainly through his punching power. He may return, but now that he's slumped to 28-4, he's unlikely to be a realistic title contender.
Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) is certainly a fighter of the future, and after the fight he said he wanted to fight Usyk again, a fight he defeated last year in Wroclaw, Poland, after sending Usyk to the canvas with a debatable low blow and giving him time to recover.
If not, a lucrative bout with the 36-year-old Fury could be on the way soon.
“I'm a gladiator, a warrior to the end,” Dubois said. “I want to get to the highest level of the game.”
