Zhilei Zhang put Deontay Wilder on the canvas and stopped him in the fifth round, capping an absolute rout by Queensberry over Matchroom in today’s 5v5 event from Riyadh.
Queensberry fighters won every single fight for a final scoring tally of 10-0 in their favor over Matchroom.
Zhang (27-2-1, 22 KO) and Wilder (43-4-1, 42 KO) were both tentative in the opening four rounds, and Wilder did come out throwing some right hands in the fifth. But that got him clipped with a right hook by Zhang, and seeing Wilder staggered, “Big Bang” followed up by chasing a turned Wilder and catching him with another that put Wilder down.
Wilder did get up, but the fight was stopped at 1:51 of round five, in what may well wind up the final fight of his career, which was hinted beforehand if he lost again in this bout.
On the undercard
Daniel Dubois stopped Filip Hrgovic on cuts in round eight to claim the interim IBF heavyweight title in a real slugfest … Hamzah Sheeraz was simply a cut above in his middleweight matchup with Austin Williams, stopping the American in the 11th round after a pretty dominant performance … Nick Ball took the WBA featherweight title from Raymond Ford, winning a split decision … Light heavyweight Willy Hutchinson scored a career-best win over Craig Richards, starting really well and then fading a bit down the stretch, but doing plenty enough to deserve the W.