Winners and Losers of Anthony Joshua-Daniel Dubois Card

Anthony Joshua fought for a heavyweight title on Saturday.

Because boxing.

The former two-time holder of various claims to divisional supremacy returned to the big stage at Wembley Stadium on Saturday afternoon (ET), when he met countryman Daniel Dubois in the main event of a six-bout pay-per-view show that went for a reasonable $19.99.

Joshua hadn't had a hold on a legitimate heavyweight belt since losing his collection to Oleksandr Usyk three years ago and dropping a rematch to the unbeaten Ukrainian in 2022. But since the sport's powers that be stripped Usyk of the IBF title for daring to accept a rematch with Tyson Fury, Joshua had a route via which to reenter the discussion.

Dubois had won two straight fights since a KO loss to Usyk in 2023 and Joshua had gone 4-0 since last encountering Usyk, including a high-profile two-round smashing of ex-UFC menace Francis Ngannou at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in March.

The show went live on DAZN and PPV.com at 11 a.m. (ET) and the main event ring walks began shortly before 5 p.m. The B/R combat team was in place to take it all in and deliver a real-time list of the show's definitive winners and losers.

Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought in the comments.

No one beyond the Daniel Dubois team thought it was possible.

But their own belief was clearly more than enough.

The unheralded British heavyweight, who actually came to the ring Saturday night as the reigning IBF champion, retained his title in the most shocking of fashions with a dominant fifth-round KO of huge favorite and UK superstar Anthony Joshua.

And the most shocking part? It wasn't even close.

Not the product of a come-from-behind shot or an iffy decision, instead it was a destruction from soon after the opening bell, with Joshua going to the canvas in three of the first four rounds and spending much of the time he was upright wobbling on unsteady legs.

The end came in the first minute of the fifth round, soon after Joshua actually had his best moments with two hard right hands that drove Dubois back into a corner. But the underdog countered a charging Joshua's right uppercut with his own right hand, dumping Joshua to the floor once again and this time for the 10-count that ended matters at 59 seconds.

It's among the biggest upsets in British boxing history, though Dubois, on the record, never doubted it'd happen.

"It's been a long journey and I'm grateful to be in this position," he said. "I'm a gladiator. I'm a warrior to the end. I want to go to the top level of this game and reach my potential. This is my time. It's my redemption story."

Dubois said afterward that he'd like another shot at Oleksandr Usyk, who beat him in 2023, presuming Usyk gets through a rematch with Tyson Fury in December.

Moments later, though, Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn said he was certain Joshua would exercise his own rematch clause and aim for another chance at Dubois, who handed him his fourth loss – second by KO.

"We rolled the dice on success but we came up short," Joshua said. "I'm always saying to myself I'm a fighter for life, so we'll roll it again. I had a fast opponent, a sharp opponent and there were some mistakes on my part."

There are surely worse ways to spend a 52nd birthday than playing before more than 90,000 people in one of England's signature venues.

So by that measure, Liam Gallagher is among Saturday's big winners.

One half of the brother duo that founded Oasis, a British band that sold more than 50 million records from the early 1990s through 2009, the Manchester-born Gallagher celebrated with a brief set featured during an interminable delay between the abrupt end of the co-main event before 4 p.m. ET and the ring walks to commence the headline event at 4:51.

Gallagher was preceded during the delay by the show's hosts gazing at stars on the video board, congratulatory chats with British promoters Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren, repetitious praise of boxing-friendly dignitaries from Saudi Arabia, and an interview with UFC firebrand Conor McGregor, who confirmed that he'll not fight again until next year.

Then, when Gallagher's set didn't end with a hoped-for (by some) preview of the reunion that'll come on the band's 30th anniversary tour through the U.K. and Ireland, it left the remaining star power to be provided – sort of – by a short film produced by British-born director Guy Ritchie (yes, the one who was married to Madonna) that included the fighters from the main card in a weird zombie apocalypse take on Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline."

Here's a suggestion for the next show: Skip the movie and go straight to the song.

Hamzah Sheeraz had the stage. And he had the performance to suit it.

The 25-year-old middleweight, already ranked first in the world by the WBC and WBO, made an additional statement that he's ready for the elite with a clinical, economical and accurate finish of European champ Tyler Denny that came at 2:05 of the second round.

It was the only knockout on the five-bout undercard and seemed imminent soon after the opening bell when Sheeraz landed a straight right hand followed by a left hook to the head that dropped Denny to his knees inside the bout's first 25 seconds.

The 33-year-old Denny, who stood just 5'10" alongside Sheeraz's towering 6'3" frame, survived the round but found himself on the deck again in the second. He rose at eight but wobbled in doing so and was waved off by referee Mark Bates.

It's Sheeraz's 21st straight win and 18th KO in a career stretching back to 2017.

"He's the British Tommy Hearns. That's what he is," analyst Tony Bellew said. "I'm so impressed with him."

The sentiments of Bellew, a former champion at cruiserweight who lost to Usyk in 2018, were followed up by fellow analyst Darren Barker, a former IBF middleweight champion.

"He's a superstar, an absolute superstar," Barker said. "Carries ridiculous power in both hands. And that's a huge statement fight. The wrecking ball that is Hamzah Sheeraz continues."

The win was his 15th in a row inside the distance since Jordan Grannum went a full six rounds with him in 2018.

"(My team) knew what they were doing. They got me in here for a reason," Sheeraz said. "I'm tired of calling for world title fights. Whoever they put in the ring with me is coming here and getting knocked out. Whenever they have a fight coming up, just tell me, I'll go to L.A. and do my camp and I'll deliver."

It took 34 rounds and three desultory fights to get them there, but the Wembley crowd finally had reason to rise to its feet thanks to round after round of compelling action in the light heavyweight grudge match between unbeaten Brit Joshua Buatsi and cocky Scotsman Willy Hutchinson.

Hutchinson went to the deck twice thanks to hard, sustained bodywork from his Olympic pedigreed rival, but frequently rallied with his own salvos of clean and precise (albeit not particularly devastating) shots to the head.

Still, neither man had the stuff to keep the other from finishing, which meant the judges had the responsibility for determining the winner and ultimately gave the nod to Buatsi via a haphazardly scored split decision – with 117-108 and 115-110 cards going in Buatsi's direction to offset a 113-112 nod for Hutchinson.

B/R had it close, too, seeing Hutchinson as superior in seven of 12 rounds but giving it to Buatsi by a 113-112 margin that was made possible by the pair of knockdown-prompted 10-8 rounds and a point deduction for Hutchinson's head butts in the seventh.

Buatsi started strong and was busier in the first two rounds before Hutchinson took over in the third, fourth and fifth with sharper shots that frequently snapped Buatsi's head back but did little to dissuade him from coming forward.

The pressure paid off through the middle rounds, with shots to the body prompting Hutchinson to go to his knees in the sixth and ninth.

But just as it looked like the end was near, the 26-year-old rallied and took it to his powerful foe in the final nine minutes, then raised his hands in would-be triumph after the bell – and perhaps setting the stage for another get-together on a future big-stadium show.

"That was a terrific fight," analyst Tony Bellew said. "Why not do it again? I'd love to see it."

Josh Warrington has had a boxing career nearly anyone would envy.

He's a two-time world champion, has won five championship-level bouts, and has the sort of internal engine that'll keep him revving for as long as he's willing to lace up gloves.

Still, if recent history is indicative, it's time to start wondering what's left to prove.

The 33-year-old moved up a weight class for a chance at a third title reign on Saturday but never got remotely close to the target, instead taking an intermittent beating that left him reddened, frustrated and defeated by champion Anthony Cacace in a bid for the lightly-regarded IBO strap at 130 pounds.

Cacace, who's also the IBF's champion in the weight class, earned a unanimous decision over his higher-profile foe by scores of 118-110, 117-111 and 117-111.

Meanwhile, it's a fourth loss in six fights since the start of 2020 for Warrington, who was 30-0 after a second-round finish of Sofiane Takoucht to defend his IBF featherweight championship in October 2019.

The decline began with a shocking KO loss to unheralded Mauricio Lara In February 2021 and a bloody technical draw against the same opponent seven months later.

He fought through a broken jaw and regained the IBF title with a KO of Kiko Martinez in March 2022 but lost a decision to Luis Alberto Lopez and was KO'd by Leigh Wood in two subsequent bouts before meeting Cacace, who's now won eight straight since his lone loss in 2017.

Warrington laid his gloves down in the ring after the bout in what's typically seen as a signal of retirement, but did not comment on his future before exiting.

"If this is indeed retirement, he's had a great career," analyst Joseph Parker said. "He's done a lot of things in boxing. If this is a moment to retire, what a moment it is. And after trying his best to win here he probably just thinks, 'this is it.'"

Josh Kelly may wind up a champion or even an all-time great.

He's got fast hands, good promotional backing, and a catchy "Pretty Boy" nickname.

But there's an excellent chance that the footage from Saturday's undercard bout with late sub Ishmael Davis won't be used at his Hall of Fame induction.

The 30-year-old world-ranked junior middleweight was faster, fleeter and more precise than his broad-backed but otherwise non-menacing opponent, picking and poking his way to a majority decision in a 12-rounder that did nothing to activate an arriving Wembley crowd.

The cards were a little close for comfort, with one judge seeing it even at 114 while the other two leaned in his favor by 115-113 and 115-114 counts.

Regardless, it's a 16th win in 18 career fights for Kelly, who fell short in a KO loss to former world title challenger David Avanesyan in the same venue early in 2021 and was held to a majority draw against tricky American veteran Ray Robinson underneath Joshua's first bout with Andy Ruiz at Madison Square Garden in 2019.

But he walked away bloodied on the bridge of the nose and over the left eye after Davis clipped him amid a moderately violent 12th-round rally, in which Kelly was troubled – but not significantly wobbled – by a hard left hook and a follow-up right that was as much a forearm shiver across the neck as an actual punch to the jaw.

Kelly, who weighed a career-high 159 pounds, arrived ranked second by the WBO and fifth by the IBF at junior middleweight and said he'd consider either division for a full-time stay depending on the opportunities that present themselves in the aftermath.

"I got caught and the blood was blurring my eyes," he said. "It was a clean shot but I couldn't see nothing. But I won the fight."

One guy was accustomed to fighting in stadiums.

The other had most recently appeared before a sparse crowd in a banquet hall.

So it seemed logical that Mark Chamberlain, an unbeaten lightweight with top-10 world rankings from three of the four major sanctioning bodies, was a 30-to-1 favorite coming in.

But none of it meant anything to Josh Padley.

The 28-year-old who works a full-time job away from the ring stepped up two weight classes to take the long-shot opportunity against Chamberlain, then made it pay off with a shocking but deserved unanimous decision defeat of the favorite in the main card's opening bout.

"Everyone wrote me off other than my team," Padley said. "But we stuck to the game plan tonight and we got that victory."

Padley was more aggressive and busy from the start, bloodied Chamberlain over the right eye in the early rounds and dropped him with a left hook to all but seal the victory, which he got via one 95-93 scorecard and two others than matched at 96-92.

Chamberlain had most recently fought on the undercard of the Usyk-Fury show in Saudi Arabia in May while Padley had beaten a seven-fight foe at the LUFC Banqueting Suite in Leeds.

"If anyone is looking for a top-level super featherweight or lightweight, I'm available," Padley said afterward in hopes that a big-name promoter would come calling. "I'll go back to work to keep the pennies coming in, then let's see what type of opportunities come in and we'll see how it goes."

It was an unusually early 11 a.m. start to the five-bout undercard on the east coast of the U.S., which meant it was a perfectly reasonable 4 p.m. curtain-raise in London.

Which speaks to the power of Anthony Joshua in his home country.

The 34-year-old known as "AJ" is a megastar across the pond in England, so, unlike many international fight cards that go off in the wee hours to accommodate U.S. television timing, this one was set up to take care of the hometown folks and their hometown hero.

The main-event fighters were scheduled to begin walks somewhere in the 10 p.m. range at Wembley Stadium, similar to local-time scheduling often set up for major venues like New York and Las Vegas.

By contrast, significant historic fights like Muhammad Ali against George Foreman started at 4 a.m. in Zaire to provide at 11 p.m. start time in New York and Mike Tyson fought Buster Douglas at midday in Tokyo, allowing for another 11 p.m. start in the U.S.

A crowd of 96,000 fans was expected by the time Joshua and Daniel Dubois reached the ring on Saturday night, though barely 96 were in their seats when the show started with a 140-pound bout matching unbeaten rivals Mark Chamberlain and Josh Padley.

Main Card

Daniel Dubois def. Anthony Joshua by KO, 0:59, Round 5

Hamzah Sheeraz def. Tyler Denny by TKO, 2:05, Round 2

Joshua Buatsi def. Willy Hutchinson by split decision (112-113, 117-108, 115-110)

Anthony Cacace def. Josh Warrington by unanimous decision (118-110, 117-111, 117-111)

Josh Kelly def. Ishmael Davis by majority decision (114-114, 115-113, 115-114)

Josh Padley def. Mark Chamberlain by unanimous decision (95-93, 96-92, 96-92)