Deontay Wilder vs Zhilei Zhang leads Matchroom vs Queensberry 5 Vs 5 on June 1st
Daniel Dubois vs Filip Hrgovic, Raymond Ford vs Nick Ball, Hamzah Sheeraz vs Austin Williams, Craig Richards vs Willy Hutchinson round out the undercard
After officially announcing Dmitry Bivol vs Artur Beterbiev for the undipsuted light heavyweight title on June 1st and Riyadh, allegedly and Eddie Hearn took the stage with 10 masked pugilists to steadily reveal the lineup for their long-brewing 5 Vs 5 showdown.
First came Daniel Dubois (20-2, 19 KO), who battles Matchroom’s Filip Hrgovic (17-0, 14 KO) in the first of two heavyweight showdowns. There’s a real chance this could turn into a title bout before fight night; Hrgovic is the IBF mandatory challenger and Dubois is no. 4, so if the winner of Usyk vs Fury vacates to honor the rematch clause, there’s no reason not to sanction it.
Down at 126, Raymond Ford (15-0-1, 8 KO) makes the first defense of his newly acquired WBA title against Queensberry’s Nick Ball (19-0-1, 11 KO), whom Eddie Hearn inadvertently named early while hyping up Dubois vs Hrgovic. Ford, fresh off of shocking Otabek Kholmatov in the final seconds, was previously expected to vacate the belt and move to 130, but will instead give Ball another shot at the big time after falling agonizingly short against Rey Vargas.
At 160, Hamzah Sheeraz (19-0, 15 KO) carries the Queensberry flag against Austin “Ammo” Williams (16-0, 11 KO). Both enjoy top-five spots in multiple sanctioning bodies’ rankings and should make for a quality scrap.
15 pounds north, Matchroom calls upon Craig Richards (18-3-1, 11 KO) to fight Willy Hutchinson (17-1, 13 KO), breaking Scott’s three-for-three prediction streak. Richards is 2-2 in his last four, but gave solid accounts of himself against both Bivol and Joshua Buatsi, while the 25-year-old Hutchinson is 4-0 with four finishes since falling to Lennox Clarke in 2021.
As for the wildcard heavyweight pick, Zhang Zhilei (26-2-1, 21 KO) reps Queensberry against Deontay Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KO). Even with their recent defeats, I don’t need to sell you on this one; it might as well be a sanctioned pistol duel.
Rather than just do best of five, each fight gives the winning promoter two points for a finish or one point for a decision, with the captains (Sheeraz and Wilder) receiving double points.
