Is Daniel Dubois Britain's new heavyweight ruler after leaving Anthony Joshua's title dream in tatters?

Boxing writer Shaun Brown analyses Daniel Dubois stunning fifth-round stoppage success over Anthony Joshua on Saturday night and explains why he feels the clash represented a true changing of the guard.

In 2017 the heavyweight division witnessed a passing of the torch when Anthony Joshua defeated Wladimir Klitschko.

The seismic event at Wembley Stadium produced a thrilling see-saw card topper, which the Brit eventually prevailed in, stopping the former heavyweight king in the 11th and penultimate round.

It helped create a love affair between Joshua and the venue which he had fought in three years earlier on the Carl Froch v George Groves 2 undercard.

Beating Klitschko created a main event superstar but this past weekend, back at Wembley Stadium and in front of 98,000 fans, there was another torch passing moment in what transpired to be one of the greatest all-British heavyweight showdowns in history.

3/1 underdog Daniel Dubois overwhelmed and thumped ‘AJ’ for four rounds before knocking him out with a minute remaining in the fifth stanza.

Boxing has a great habit of producing moments that leaves your mouth agape having witnessed the unthinkable, and Dubois beating Joshua in the manner he did was just that.

Whether or not the 27-year-old Londoner could headline the type of show we watched on Saturday night remains to be seen, but there is no doubt that he has now taken Joshua’s place in the pecking order at heavyweight.

The IBF title holder is amidst a momentum surge that right now, appears unstoppable.

Previous victories over Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic demonstrated the evolution of Dubois and provided full proof that he has banished the demons from his loss to Oleksandr Usyk and to an even greater extent, at the hands of Joe Joyce.

Joshua’s collapse against Dubois suggested he cannot hang with the young, hungry, powerful heavyweights that are coming through to take over the division.

The quartet of Usyk, Joshua, Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder are nearing the end of their careers and fighters like Dubois, Moses Itauma, Martin Bakole, Agit Kabayel, Bakhodir Jalolov and others are starting to smell blood.

What proved most surprising on Saturday night was how Joshua went about fighting Dubois inside the ring.

There were echoes of his loss five years ago to Andy Ruiz Jr at Madison Square Garden when the Watford star was punched from pillar to post in one of the biggest upsets of the modern era.

Against Dubois, the overwhelming 1/4 pre-fight favourite, abandoned his defence, even before the first knockdown in round one, and carried himself like a man who was over confident to the point of arrogance that all he needed to do was simply hit Dubois, jump on him and the fight would be over.

His hand positioning was not that of a man who has won Olympic Gold, world titles and fought for 11 years as a professional.

As soon as Dubois connected with an overhand right which put the former champion down the writing was on the wall. Joshua’s mind, legs, and senses never recovered and he chose to fight on instinct after only one round - a silly and dangerous game against ant fighter in the blue-riband division.

The 34-year-old is now a veteran of the sport and his trainer Ben Davison must surely have expected someone so experienced to keep his chin down, his hands up and force clinches to buy him time and allow him to recover.

Perhaps the inevitable would have happened no matter what Joshua tried, but this was a man who had chosen 'The Godfather' theme as one of two tracks for his ring walk, and then fought like the hot head Sonny Corleone (played by James Caan in the first Godfather movie) who met his own demise in shocking circumstances.

Make no mistake about it, the night, however, belonged to Daniel Dubois.

A soft spoken, 6ft 5ins thunderous punching heavyweight who has turned his career around in almost miraculous fashion.

This is his time, his moment and maybe the start of his own era. The torch went out last night on Joshua’s time at the top but for Dubois his is shining brighter than ever.

Shaun Brown

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