Stories galore, but the manner of DD’S victory was arguably the most impressive Arabian knights
★★★★★ UNDERCARD
★★★★★ ATMOSPHERE
ANYBODY drawing up their usual endof-year awards would have been wise to wait until this mammoth card was out of the way
before doing so.
Even without the two co-main events, there were thrills and spills throughout the undercard, with notable shouts for Upset of the Year and Knockout of the Year, while Daniel Dubois would have bludgeoned his way into the running for a few gongs himself.
The Londoner, off the back of his defeat to Oleksandr Usyk in the summer, had to dig deep in one of the heavyweight fights of the year to stop Jarrell Miller with just eight seconds remaining of their 10-round clash.
That alone made his one of the biggest comeback stories of 2023, but in fact his whole week in Saudi Arabia could be tagged as a true breakout moment for the 26-year-old. His trash-talk clip at the pre-fight press conference went viral and he secured a legion of new fans when he mistakenly described Saudi Arabia as beng in Africa.
But it was the gutsy nature of this victory, after years of questions regarding his heart and desire following his stoppage defeats to Joe Joyce in 2020 and more recently Usyk, that really made this a turning point in the young man’s career.
“It really mattered tonight and I had to dig deep,” Dubois said. “I’m glad I came through it – I showed my heart. This was an important fight tonight. I had to get through it. I had to dig very deep. I had my dad screaming at me in the corner, I had to go to work. I had to prove it to myself, really; I had to prove to myself I was a real fighter. I silenced all the doubts tonight. I had to finish strong.”
The 333lbs Miller, to his credit, never stopped coming and Dubois boxed well at long range early on, but was not afraid to mix it in close during a breathless fight where both fighters emptied their tanks. But it was Dubois who was always ahead and eventually found a stoppage, with a series of heavy shots which gave Michael Alexander little choice but to step in despite their proximity to the final bell.
The only undercard fight that did require judges came between arguably the world’s best light-heavyweight, Dmitry Bivol, the putative 2022 Fighter of the Year, and Manchester’s Lyndon Arthur. It would not have won many awards.
Bivol, as is his trademark, controlled the fight with his ramrod jab, which he threw relentlessly, using his quick feet to dart in and out of range. But it is now nearly six years since his last stoppage victory and Arthur, despite not winning a round, stayed largely out of serious trouble.
That was until the 11th round, when Bivol finally went through the gears and forced Arthur to take a knee while trapped against the ropes just before the bell to end the round. He got up in time to beat John Latham’s count, cleared his head and then made it through the 12th without any further trouble. All three judges, Jean-robert Laine, Ignacio Robles and Steve Weisfeild, scored Bivol a 120-107 winner.
“I would say this was good sparring for me,” said an honest Bivol. “Lyndon was using his good jab and I’m glad at the end of the year I got this fight. I didn’t push myself at times, because I wasn’t sure if I had the power or not. I looked in his eyes and he kept something inside himself, too.”
In one of the biggest shocks of the year and one of the very best performances in 2023, underdog Agit Kabayel took apart the fearsome and previously undefeated Arslanbek Makhmudov inside four rounds.
The European heavyweight champion, with height, reach and weight disadvantages, had been written off by many before this clash, but he tore up the script in Riyadh. All 6ft 6ins of Makhmudov was down three times before referee Mark Lyson decided enough was enough at 2-03 of the fourth.
Kabayel had soaked up whatever was offered by Makhmudov, who had 17 knockouts from 18 wins, before constantly switching his attack from body to head to confuse, befuddle and break the Russian. It had been scheduled for 10.
Earlier, cruiserweight world champion
Jai Opetaia delivered his entry for Knockout of the Year when he vapourised Ellis Zorro four seconds before the end of round one. Opetaia, who scythed down another Brit, Jordan Thompson, in September, looked just as destructive here.
The southpaw from Australia had spent the rest of the round getting a read on Zorro, undefeated before this trip to Saudi, and the architect of only a couple of meaningful forward forays in this fight before the ending came.
And, as everyone else anticipated the end of the round, Opetaia took his chance. The 28-year-old feinted low with a jab and when Zorro attempted to parry it with his right hand he left a gap for Opetaia to crash a devastating left hand into his chin, sending the South Londoner immediately downwards. He ended the fight with his head resting against the bottom rope. As expected, Filip Hrgovic also took care of business inside the first round against horribly overmatched Australian visitor
Mark De Mori. The Croatian heavyweight barely got out of first gear, but forced De Mori to take a knee when a right hand scrambled his senses. He got up to prolong the punishment but, with Hrgovic immediately back to work, the stoppage soon came. Referee Lyson was already stepping in as the towel came in from De Mori’s corner. The official time was 1-46 of the first.
In the evening’s opening fight, another undefeated heavyweight did the business against a man from thesouthern Hemisphere, as Frank Sanchez stopped
Junior Fa in the seventh. It had been a reasonably pedestrian affair until Miamibased Cuban Sanchez began to turn the screw in the sixth, dropping his New Zealand opponent 10 seconds before the end of the round.
Sanchez, sensing the stoppage, maintained the pressure in the seventh, dropping Fa twice more before referee Kevin Parker called a halt at 2-42.
THE VERDICT Knockouts and breakouts, upsets and formalities – this had a bit of everything.