Dubois beats up Joshua to retain IBF heavyweight title with brutal 5th-round knockout

LONDON (AP) — Daniel Dubois is no longer an accidental world heavyweight champion.

With a brutal fifth-round knockout of Anthony Joshua in front of 96,000 fans at Wembley Stadium, Dubois showed he might be the real deal — and the future of boxing’s marquee division.

“Are you not entertained?” Dubois roared to the crowd after dominating the all-British title fight to complete his quest to legitimize his status as a heavyweight titleholder, three months after gaining the IBF belt vacated by Oleksandr Usyk.

The 27-year-old Dubois entered the ring first — an unusual twist given he was the champion — to strengthen the feeling this was being treated as a homecoming for Joshua, the decade-long darling of British boxing who was bidding to emulate the likes of Muhammad Ali and Lennox Lewis as a three-time heavyweight champ.

Dubois left the ring as the heavyweight’s next big thing, having floored Joshua in the first and third rounds before ending the fight 59 seconds into the fifth with a counter right that sent Joshua face first into the canvas.

Joshua's corner threw in the towel but that wasn't needed. There was no coming back for a boxer whose best days look behind him.

“This is my time, my redemption story,” said Dubois, who put himself in position to potentially fight the winner of the Dec. 21 rematch between WBA, WBC and WBO champion Usyk and Tyson Fury. “I’m not going to stop until I reach my full potential.”

As for the outclassed Joshua, he vowed to continue boxing after a fourth defeat over the last five years. His promoter, Eddie Hearn, said he wanted to exercise the rematch clause.

This was the worst of all those losses, though. Joshua was saved by the bell in the first and third rounds after the knockdowns and put in a ragged performance throughout, with Dubois getting through his defense with ease.

Joshua never recovered from an overhead right late in the first round that knocked him down. He stuck out his tongue toward Dubois as he returned to his stool but he was clearly hurt, disorientated and vulnerable.

The knockdown late in the third, off a big left from Dubois, dumped Joshua onto his backside through the ropes.

“I had a sharp opponent, a fast opponent,” Joshua said. “But a lot of the mistakes were mine.”

A record post-war boxing crowd in Britain witnessed a changing of the guard.

Joshua has been a marketing phenomenon for the past decade, selling out U.K. stadiums and making hundreds of millions of dollars mainly because of his punching power. He might be back, but surely not as a realistic title contender after slipping to 28-4.

Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) is undoubtedly the future. He said after the fight that he wanted another shot at Usyk, to whom he lost in Wroclaw, Poland, last year — but only after sending the Ukrainian to the canvas with a disputed low blow from which Usyk was given time to recover.

Otherwise, there's potentially a money-spinning fight with the 36-year-old Fury in the offing.

“I'm a gladiator. I'm a warrior to the bitter end,” Dubois said. “I want to go to the top level of this game.”

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Daniel Dubois celebrates victory against Anthony Joshua, not pictured, in the IBF World Heavyweight bout at Wembley Stadium, in London, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)

Anthony Joshua, left, knocked down by Daniel Dubois in the IBF World Heavyweight bout at Wembley Stadium, in London, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)

Anthony Joshua, left, and Daniel Dubois, fight in the IBF World Heavyweight bout at Wembley Stadium, in London, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)

Daniel Dubois, center, celebrates victory against Anthony Joshua, not pictured, in the IBF World Heavyweight bout at Wembley Stadium, in London, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)

Daniel Dubois, left, knocks out Anthony Joshua in the IBF World Heavyweight bout at Wembley Stadium, in London, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)

Anthony Joshua, centre, and Daniel Dubois, right, fight in the IBF World Heavyweight bout at Wembley Stadium, in London, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)

Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk in the stands with his belt at Wembley Stadium, in London, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)

Anthony Joshua, left, and Daniel Dubois fight in the IBF World Heavyweight bout at Wembley Stadium, in London, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)

Daniel Dubois, centre, knocks down Anthony Joshua in the IBF World Heavyweight bout at Wembley Stadium, in London, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)

Daniel Dubois, right, knocks down Anthony Joshua in the IBF World Heavyweight bout at Wembley Stadium, in London, Saturday Sept. 21, 2024. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)

Anthony Joshua, left, and Daniel Dubois fight in the IBF World Heavyweight bout at Wembley Stadium, in London, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Venezuelans on Saturday were scrambling to understand who is in charge of their country after a U.S. military operation that captured President Nicolás Maduro.

President Donald Trump delivered a shocking pick: The United States, perhaps in coordination with one of Maduro's most trusted aides.

Delcy Rodríguez has served as Maduro's vice president since 2018, overseeing much of Venezuela's oil-dependent economy as well as its feared intelligence service. But she is someone the Trump administration apparently is willing to work with, at least for now.

“She’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” Trump told reporters of Rodríguez, who faced U.S. sanctions during Trump’s first administration for her role in undermining Venezuelan democracy.

In a major snub, Trump said opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was awarded last year's Nobel Peace Prize, didn't have the support to run the country.

Trump said Rodríguez had a long conversation with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in which Trump claimed she said, “‘We’ll do whatever you need.’”

“I think she was quite gracious,” Trump added. “We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind.”

Rodríguez tried to project strength and unity among the ruling party's many factions, downplaying any hint of betrayal. In remarks on state TV, she demanded the immediate release of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and denounced the U.S. operation as a flagrant violation of the United Nations charter.

“There is only one president in this country, and his name is Nicolás Maduro," Rodríguez said, surrounded by top civilian officials and military commanders.

There was no immediate sign that the U.S. was running Venezuela.

“What will happen tomorrow? What will happen in the next hour? Nobody knows,” Caracas resident Juan Pablo Petrone said.

Trump indicated that Rodríguez had been sworn in already as president of Venezuela, per the transfer of power outlined in the constitution. However, state television has not broadcast any swearing-in ceremony.

In her televised address, Rodríguez did not declare herself acting president or mention a political transition. A ticker at the bottom of the screen identified her as the vice president. She gave no sign that she would be cooperating with the U.S.

“What is being done to Venezuela is an atrocity that violates international law,” she said. “History and justice will make the extremists who promoted this armed aggression pay.”

The Venezuelan constitution also says a new election must be called within a month in the event of the president’s absence.

But experts have been debating whether the succession scenario would apply here, given the government’s lack of popular legitimacy and the extraordinary U.S. military intervention.

Venezuelan military officials were quick to project defiance in video messages.

“They have attacked us but will not break us,” said Defense Minister Gen. Vladimir Padrino López, dressed in fatigues.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello appeared on state TV in a helmet and flak jacket, urging Venezuelans to “trust in the political leadership and military” and “get out on the streets” to defend the country’s sovereignty.

“These rats attacked and they will regret what they did,” he said of the U.S.

A lawyer educated in Britain and France, Rodríguez has a long history of representing the revolution started by the late Hugo Chávez on the world stage.

She and her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, head of the Maduro-controlled National Assembly, have strong leftist credentials born from tragedy. Their father was a socialist leader who died in police custody in the 1970s, a crime that shook many activists of the era, including a young Maduro.

Unlike many in Maduro’s inner circle, the Rodríguez siblings have avoided criminal indictment in the U.S. Delcy Rodríguez has developed strong ties with Republicans in the oil industry and on Wall Street who balked at the notion of U.S.-led regime change.

Among her past interlocutors was Blackwater founder Erik Prince and, more recently, Richard Grenell, a Trump special envoy who tried to negotiate a deal with Maduro for greater U.S. influence in Venezuela.

Fluent in English, Rodríguez is sometimes portrayed as a well-educated moderate in contrast to the military hardliners who took up arms with Chávez against Venezuela's democratically elected president in the 1990s.

Many of them, especially Cabello, are wanted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges and stand accused of serious human rights abuses. But they continue to hold sway over the armed forces, the traditional arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela.

That presents major challenges to Rodríguez asserting authority. But experts say that Venezuela’s power brokers have long had a habit of closing ranks behind their leaders.

“These leaders have all seen the value of staying united. Cabello has always taken a second seat or third seat, knowing that his fate is tied up with Maduro’s, and now he very well might do that again,” said David Smilde, a sociology professor at Tulane University who has conducted research into Venezuela's political dynamics over the past three decades.

“A lot depends on what happened last night, which officials were taken out, what the state of the military looks like now," Smilde said. "If it doesn’t have much firepower anymore, they’re more vulnerable and diminished and it will be easier for her to gain control.”

Shortly before Trump's press conference, Machado, the opposition leader, called on her ally Edmundo González — a retired diplomat widely considered to have won the country’s disputed 2024 presidential election — to “immediately assume his constitutional mandate and be recognized as commander-in-chief."

In an triumphant statement, Machado promised that her movement would “restore order, free political prisoners, build an exceptional country and bring our children back home.”

She added: “Today we are prepared to assert our mandate and take power."

Asked about Machado, Trump was blunt: “I think it would be very tough for (Machado) to be the leader," he said.

“She doesn’t have the support or respect within the country.”

Venezuelans expressed shock, with many speculating on social media that Trump had mixed up the two women's names. Machado has not responded to Trump's remarks.

Goodman reported from Miami.

Venezuelan Vice President and Oil Minister Delcy Rodriguez gives a press conference at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

A supporter of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro stands on a median strip waving a national flag in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)