Long-standing promotional rivals Queensberry and Matchroom will battle it out on June 1 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The 5 vs 5, which has created intense speculation and interest across the boxing world is headlined by the undisputed championship of the world match between light heavyweight greats Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
The current WBA world light heavyweight champion, the slick and stylish Bivol, 33, holds a record of 22-0 (11 KOs) and has successfully defended his title on 10 occasions over the last six years. Wrecking machine Beterbiev, 39, is the WBC, IBF and WBO world champion and has secured all of his 20 professional victories via knockout.
Here is the undercard:
Chinese giant “Big Bang” Zhilei Zhang (26-2-1, 21 KOs) has been chosen to represent Queensberry in the second heavyweight encounter. The 40-year-old southpaw takes on Matchroom pick and former WBC world heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KOs), the Bronze Bomber who made 10 successful defences of the title he won by defeating Bermane Stiverne in 2015. The man from Alabama, with the trademark ‘Bomb Squad’ chant, has executed a chilling 42 KOs from his 43 wins.
At featherweight, in what many predict will be a ‘fight of the year’ contender, and arguably should have been a world title unification, Queensberry’s Nick Ball, (19-0-1, 11 KOs), and Matchroom’s American world champion Ray Ford, (15-0-1, 8 KOs), compete for the WBA World Featherweight championship recently won by Ford in spectacular fashion against Otabek Kholmatov via a stoppage with just seven seconds of the 12 rounds remaining.
Queensberry’s undefeated Hamzah Sheeraz, the WBC Silver and Commonwealth champion with a record of 19-0 (15 KOs), trades blows with Matchroom’s USA product Austin ‘Ammo’ Williams, who has impressively assembled a record of 16-0 (11 KOs) and won the IBF North American title in 2023. A huge prize is on the line in the fight with the fight being recognised as a Final Eliminator for the WBC World Middleweight title. Sheeraz is also rated as the No.1 contender with the WBO so a World title opportunity beckons for the winner. Sheeraz, at just 24, is on a run of 13 straight stoppages, the longest consecutive KO streak currently in British boxing.
In the final fight, Queensberry light heavyweight and former World Amateur champion Willy Hutchinson (17-1, 13 KOs), one of the brightest talents in British boxing and the current WBC International champion, will face Matchroom’s former British champion and WBA world title challenger Craig ‘Spider’ Richards (18-3-1, 11 KOs).
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