Key events
Fabio Wardley has just scored a seventh-round stoppage of David Adeleye. The 28-year-old Ipswich man abruptly dropped his rival with a vicious right-left combination upstairs midway through the seventh. Adeleye made it to his feet but was unable to defend himself as Wardley rushed in to close the show and referee John Latham waved it off at the 2:43 mark.
Adeleye, who suffered his first defeat in 13 professional fights, shoved the referee afterward in protest of what he believed to be a premature stoppage and will almost surely face a fine.
Next up: what’s been breathlessly described as an “Olympic opening ceremony-level” pre-fight production featuring Lil Baby and Becky G. Then it’ll be time for Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou.
Ye is in the building. The Jesus Walks rapper is a personal guest of Turki Al-Sheikh, the minister in charge of entertainment at the Saudi royal court, one of dozens of celebrities and former fighters who are in Riyadh for tonight’s spectacle.
Here’s where things stand with today’s order of play. So far we’ve breezed through the all-heavyweight pay-per-view undercard:
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Martin Bakole TKO 4 Carlos Takam
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Moses Itauma TKO 1 István Bernáth
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Arslanbek Makhmudov TKO 1 Junior Anthony Wright Jr
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Joseph Parker KO 3 Simon Kean
The final preliminary bout has just gotten under way and it’s the best of the crop: a scheduled 12-round scrap between unbeaten British prospects Fabio Wardley (16-0, 15 KOs) and David Adeleye (12-0, 11 KOs).
Prelude
Hello and welcome to Riyadh’s Kingdom Arena for tonight’s crossover match between Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou. It’s been billed as the Battle of the Baddest: a scheduled 10-round boxing match between the finest heavyweight boxer of his generation, unbeaten in 34 paying fights, against a former UFC champion with no professional boxing experience who hasn’t fought in nearly two years. It doesn’t take an expert to know how this one will play out.
But we groundlings love a sideshow and always have, making us susceptible to promotional stunts like these for as as long as anyone can remember. There was Ali’s risible fight with the Japanese pro wrestler Antonio Inoki in 1976, widely regarded as the most embarrassing moment of the Greatest’s career. There were Jesse Owens’ lamentable match races against thoroughbred horses, a humiliating comedown for the Olympic hero who had stared down Hitler in Berlin. There was the much-ballyhooed 150m race between Donovan Bailey and Michael Johnson at Toronto’s SkyDome to determine the title of world’s fastest man. And, of course, Floyd Maywether v Conor McGregor, perhaps the closest analogue to the mundanity afoot.
Contrary to early reports, tonight’s fight is not an exhibition and will count as an official bout. However, Fury’s WBC heavyweight title will not be on the line.
“I need to be on my ‘A’ game because there’s more on the line now than a boxing fight,” Fury said. “If I lost to an MMA guy, I’m never going to be able to show my face in public again. There’s going to be ridicule and people are going to chuck it in my face forever. There’s more riding on this than there ever has been before.”
We’re around an hour from the main event ringwalks. Plenty to come between now and then.
Bryan will be here shortly. Here’s our Donald McRae’s lookahead to today’s main event.
