FINAL SCORE: QUEENSBERRY 10-0 MATCHROOM
TEAM QUEENSBERRY EMERGED victorious by a landslide margin in the inaugural 5 vs 5 Riyadh Original event at the Kingdom Arena on Saturday night, with Nick Ball becoming the new WBC World Featherweight champion and Daniel Dubois seizing the IBF Interim World Heavyweight title.
Zhilei Zhang demolished Deontay Wilder with a bludgeoning fifth round KO to round off a shutout 10-0 Queensberry triumph.
After dominating the former WBC champion right from the first bell, two right handers put an end to Wilder, with referee Kieran McCann deeming him not fit to continue.
Dubois, 21-2, who is now on the cusp of the full IBF world championship, took the undefeated record of Croatian Filip Hrgovic after negotiating a few tricky early rounds when the former Olympian was high on confidence.
The 26-year-old Londoner clawed his way right back into the reckoning and he was buoyed the opening of a nasty looking cut over the eyelid of Hrgovic, who visibly began to wilt as the shots of Dubois took a heavier toll.
The pendulum swung truly in favour of the Queensberry man in round seven when Hrgovic was forced to absorb a barrage of shots from a rejuvenated Dubois and, if the bell hadn’t sounded, it would likely have been game over.
However, Dubois was not to be denied and it took just 57 seconds of round eight before referee John Latham consulted the ringside doctor and the fight was waved off and Queensberry surged into an 8-0 lead.
Team captain Hamzah Sheeraz extended his knockout run by retaining his WBC Silver middleweight title with an 11th round stoppage of undefeated challenger Austin Williams.
Sheeraz, 20-0, reaped maximum points for the team with his KO win, following the intervention of referee Mark Lyson after 45 seconds of the penultimate session.
The Ilford man dominated the fight against the ambitious American, although he was wobbled by a big shot in the second round. He recomposed himself and punished the Matchroom middleweight round after round before a looping and vicious right hand put Ford to the canvas right at the end of the 10th.
It was then only a matter of time before the skipper punched his team into a 6-0 lead on the night.
The fight was also a final eliminator for a shot at the full WBC world title.
Liverpool star Ball took his career record to 20-0-1 and shook off the hurt of being denied a WBC world title in March by out-punching the previously unbeaten WBA world champion Ray Ford in a thriller.
‘Savage’, the southpaw from Camden, New Jersey, displayed incredible hand speed when unleashing jabs, but they were not enough to withstand the continued onslaughts of Ball, who regularly caught Ford with the heavier artillery.
Inspired by his trainer and mentor Paul Stevenson and backed by the entire team from the famous Everton Red Triangle gym, Ball had to suffer a nervous wait when a split decision was announced, but tension turned to joy when two out of three scores of 115-113 were called in his favour.
Liverpool and Queensberry have a new world champion.
In fight No.1 of the night, Willy Hutchinson got the team off to a flying start by clinching the WBC Silver title at light heavyweight with a career-best performance against former world title challenger Craig Richards.
The Hutch Train, now 18-1, has propelled himself towards world title contention by putting on the style against fellow Brit and the 25-year-old former world amateur champion prevailed by scores of 116-112, 117-111 and 119-109 to put down a marker for his team.