THE Saudi Arabian national anthem was BOOED by a section of fans inside Wembley prior to Anthony Joshua’s brutal KO defeat by Daniel Dubois.
But spectators at home thought the vocals were the best they’d heard on the card – ranking them as BETTER than Liam Gallagher.
Iconic American ring announcer Michael Buffer declared that before the first bell would ring, the Saudi national anthem would be played following a tribute to King Salman.
And for a brief second, silence fell on Wembley as the stadium was suddenly illuminated in green and white – the colours of Saudi’s flag.
The fight was staged under the Kingdom’s Riyadh Season promotional banner with Turki Alalshik, a member of the Saudi royal court in charge of entertainment, stood sternly in the centre of the ring to listen to the anthem.
But just as the Saudi chorus was coming to an end, a section of fans began booing from the upper tiers.
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And many pay-per-view fans at home shared in their disgust, with one commentating: “This is so embarrassing, how can they play that first?”
While another wrote: “Saudi national anthem at a fight between two British blokes AT WEMBLEY!! Absolute joke.”
‘God Save the King’ was played immediately after.
It is not uncommon for the boxers’ anthems to be played, but the promoter’s on foreign soil was a first.
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Yet others took the hilarious opportunity to poke fun at Oasis front man Liam Gallagher – who performed three classic tracks before the fight.
And his first performance since announcing the long-anticipated sold-out Oasis reunion, went down like a lead balloon.
Plenty of memes have savaged Gallagher’s shaky singing, with one fan asking if it was a “tribute act.”
While others declared: “Best vocals on the AJ v Dubois card tonight” alongside a picture of Rashid Al-Majed singing the Saudi anthem.
Another said: “That Saudi anthem was 100x better than Liam Gallagher butchering his songs 😂”
While one more wrote: “Not sure what was worse, AJ, the Saudi national anthem or Liam Gallagher.”
A fourth joked: “Please don’t ask Gallagher to sing the anthem, he was god awful.”
A fifth chimed in: “Liam was outdone by the Saudi national anthem.”
Sky Sports were forced into making an apology for “strong language” from Gallagher too.
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Meanwhile Dubois, 27, retained his IBF heavyweight title after knocking out Joshua in the fifth round.
Joshua, 34, was floored at the end of the first and third rounds, before suffering a brutal final right hand blow to the jaw in the fifth in front of a record 96,000 Wembley crowd.
Round by round: How Dubois demolished Joshua
ANTHONY JOSHUA bravely picked himself up from the floor against Daniel Dubois – until he could no more.
AJ was floored four times in five rounds by Dubois before a thudding counter right closed the show in dramatic fashion.
Here, SunSport’s Jack Figg takes you round-by-round from the Wembley war.
ROUND 1
Dubois comes out sharp with the jab as Joshua bounces around struggling to deal with the piston-like left.
Huge right hand from Dubois has AJ staggering backwards with his hands far too low from the opening bell.
Joshua made to pay for the mistake as he circles out with his hands down and gets dropped by an overhand right.
ROUND 2
Joshua – saved only by the bell after being floored – struggles to get going as he takes shots to the face.
AJ is tottering and teetering around the ring with his guard again dangerously low and inviting pressure on.
Joshua is attempting to get back into the bout but his jab looks far too lazy – he doesn’t look to have recovered from the knockdown.
ROUND 3
AJ comes out with more intent but swings wildly with a right and connects with only thin air.
Dubois pours on the pressure and hammers Joshua into the corner scoring another knockdown.
The bell sounds but Dubois lands one or two afterwards – again AJ is saved by the clock as the writing looks on the wall.
ROUND 4
Disaster strikes again with Joshua floored once more – losing his balance as he touches the canvas.
The referee gives AJ another fighting chance and Dubois lands a low blow – giving the challenger some valuable respite.
Dubois slows down as four rounds come to a close with Joshua showing sensational resilience to hang in there.
ROUND 5
Joshua lands a huge right hand and Dubois legs buckle – an astonishing turnaround looks to be on the cards.
AJ pins Dubois onto the ropes and attempts one of his signature uppercuts but the countering right hand gets there first.
Joshua is caught flush on the chin, dropped once more and this time out for good. Dubois scores a stunning KO win.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
