A lot of the boxing world was left shocked by the brutal knockdown of former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua by Daniel Dubois.
However one ringside observer particularly appeared to take it tougher than most.
Joshua lay stricken on the canvas following his brutal fifth-round knockout in his IBF world title combat, with Dubois exalting in his triumph in entrance of a file 98,128 crowd — the biggest ever for a combat within the UK — at Wembley Stadium in London.
That crowd had risen to crown its latest champion.
However Tyson Fury stood scratching his head.
“Hear, that is price me 150 million [pounds],” Fury shouts.
“In fact it has! He is f*****,” Fury continues, earlier than shouting over to Turki Alalshikh, the Saudi Royal who has helped be sure that boxing’s largest fights happen by utilizing the billions of {dollars} at his disposal.
“Turki, you’d higher pay me now,” Fury says.
Alalshikh, nonetheless, appeared removed from too happy himself.
Through the broadcast of the occasion, the 43-year-old appeared to make a swift “reduce” gesture to the digicam operator as he stepped in entrance of his viewing place.
It was an comprehensible response from a fan of the game determined to rearrange one of many sport’s most extremely anticipated match-ups: An all-British showdown between Fury and Joshua.
It was much more comprehensible from somebody with a monetary stake in such a contest, seeing its lucrativeness disappearing with each thunderous blow that slammed into the top of British boxing’s most marketable asset.
Joshua was knocked down 4 instances on his option to a fourth-career defeat to his youthful counterpart, a brutal show of king-slaying that thrust Dubois again into the limelight that he appeared each destined to face in and damned to be skirted by.
A boxer of immeasurable expertise, Dubois has twice confronted accusations of being lower than the brutal enterprise of boxing.
Accused of quitting when taking a knee towards fellow Brit Joe Joyce in 2020 — Dubois had a fractured eye socket and risked blindness, it later emerged — after which equally happening when Oleksandr Usyk pummelled him final 12 months.
In that combat, Usyk had earlier gone down himself, just for the crushing physique shot to be controversially dominated a low blow.
The London-born and raised Dubois was consoled within the ring by Usyk after the match, the Ukrainian telling him that defeat is “not dangerous”.
“It is boxing … Daniel, you younger. You possibly can dream. Man, dude, calm down.”
Dubois, considered one of 11 youngsters and brother of interim WBC girls’s light-weight world champion Caroline, comes throughout as shy and retiring, a person of few phrases and, maybe short-sightedly, few advertising quirks to hold a pay-per-view off.
After Dubois’s upset, Fury praised Usyk — who was additionally ringside in London and has crushed Joshua and Fury in recent times — saying, “You taught them each a correct boxing lesson. Honest play to ya.”
Maybe, in a world of brashness and bravado, boxing heads may have to begin pondering exterior the field.
Joshua strikes to an expert file of 28-4 and is now at a crossroads that ought to, maybe, lead to his retirement.
He insisted after the combat that he would proceed, whereas his promoter, Eddie Hearn mentioned the prospect of a Fury combat was nonetheless obtainable.
“We fancied successful tonight and going through the winner of Usyk vs Fury,” Hearn mentioned.
“Now we might find yourself preventing the loser of that combat if it is Fury.”
Fury and Usyk meet in a rematch of their undisputed combat on December 21 in Riyadh.
Usyk beat Fury by a break up choice in Could, turning into the primary undisputed heavyweight champion within the four-belt period within the course of.
Regardless of turning into undisputed, Usyk was pressured to vacate his IBF belt to pursue a rematch with Fury, a belt now held by Dubois.
Fury, in the meantime, has a unification combat to deal with.
After signing to combat Joshua in 2021, just for Deontay Wilder to take the British heavyweight to court docket to train a rematch clause that led to the concluding of their spectacular trilogy, Fury may have a shot at Usyk to regain the heavyweight titles for a 3rd time.
The 36-year-old former unified champion was extra prosaic about Joshua’s prospects when interviewed later.
“It is heavyweight boxing, s*** occurs,” Fury advised FightHub TV — a motto that could possibly be extrapolated to incorporate the whole sport.
“You get knocked spark out. It might have been me. Within the heavyweight division, it is what occurs.
“What went improper is what all the time occurs in heavyweight boxing. proper hand on the top of the chin, and that was it.”