Zhilei Zhang (27-2-1, 22 KOs) finished off the career of former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder (43-4-1, 42 KOs), knocking him out in the fifth round on Saturday night at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.
There was little action from Wilder until the fifth when he suddenly came alive and threw some nice right hands.
The 38-year-old Wilder got careless, telegraphing a right hand, and was countered by a short counter-right hook from Zhang, 41, that spun Deontay around, knocking him off balance. Zhang then nailed Wilder with a hand that put him flat on his back.
The referee then waved it off after the hurt Bronze Bomber got back up. The time of the stoppage was at 1:51 of round five.
Daniel Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs) pulled off a huge upset in defeating Filip Hrgovic (17-1, 14 KOs) by an eighth round stoppage to capture the IBF interim heavyweight title. The ringside doctor advised the contest be halted in the eighth due to Hrgovic’s sustained cuts over both eyes. The time of the stoppage was at :57 of round eight.
Dubois, 26, had Hrgovic badly hurt in the seventh round, and he barely made it out of the round. At the start of the eighth, Dubois jumped on the exhausted and hiurt Hrgovic, hitting him at will with shots. The referee then called a time out and marched the badly bleeding Hrgovic over to the ringside doctor, who advised that the contest be halted.
WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs) stopped his previous substitute opponent Malik Zinad (22-1, 16 KOs) in the sixth round of a scheduled twelve-round contest.
Bivol hurt fringe contender Zinad with a right hand in the sixth and then unloaded with a barrage of unanswered punches, resulting in referee Howard Foster stepping in to stop the contest.
The time of the stoppage was at 2:06 of round six. Earlier in the fight, Bivol dropped Zinad, 30, with a left hook to the head in the first round.
Despite suffering a bloody nose in round two, Zinad fought well in rounds two through five, using his and powerful right hand to keep Bivol from rushing in to land his shots. However, in the sixth, Zinad appeared to anger Bivol with a shot, causing him to unload with a storm of punches to get the stoppage.
The referee did the right thing by stopping it because the last two punches that Bivol connected with had Zinad looking stunned.
Queensberry team captain and middleweight contender Hamzah Sheeraz (20-0, 16 KOs) scored an eleventh-round knockout of previously unbeaten Austin ‘Ammo’ Williams (16-1, 11 KOs) in a WBC title eliminator.
The lanky 6’3″ Sheeraz, 25, dropped Ammo Williams late in the tenth round and then finished him off the hurt Matchroom fighter at the start of the eleventh with a series of hard shots. The fight was halted at 45 seconds of the 11th round.
Williams, 28, staggered Hamzah with a left to the head in the first round. However, Sheeraz came back from there, dominating Williams the rest of the way, taking advantage of his long reach.
Ammo William’s right eye swelled up from the jabs of Hamzah. The failure for Williams was that he wasn’t listening to his coach by staying in close. When he was in close, he lacked the power to do anything against the stork-like Hamzah.
Nick Ball (20-0-1, 11 KOs) outworked previously unbeaten WBA featherweight champion Raymond Ford (15-1-1, 8 KOs), beating him by an exciting twelve round split decision. The scores were 115-113, 115-113 for Ball, and 115-113 for Ford.
Ford bloodied Ball’s nose in the seventh round with a right hand and controlled the middle rounds with his jab and precise shots. Ball came back in the twelfth round to get the better of Ford with close-range shots against the ropes. Ford was cut under his right eye early and above his left eye.
After the fight, Ford said he’ll move up to super featherweight to start campaigning in that weight division.
Light heavyweight Willy Hutchinson (18-1, 13 KOs) performed a masterclass, defeating veteran Craig Richards (18-4-1, 11 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision. The scores were 116-112, 117-111, and 119-109.
Hutchinson, 25, had Richards close to being stopped late in the tenth round when he trapped him in the corner and unloaded on him with a flurry of shots. Richards had rallied in the ninth and the start of the tenth before getting hurt.
In the eleventh, the 34-year-old Richards appeared to stun a fatigued Hutchinson with a right hand, but couldn’t connect with anything to put him in worse trouble due to his head movement. In the twelfth, Hutchinson got his second wind, and used movement and angles to finish strong to get the victory.
