This Saturday will see the much-anticipated Matchroom vs Queensbury ‘5v5’ card. Initially intended as the undercard for the undisputed light-heavyweight showdown of Dmitry Bivol versus Artur Beterbiev, the card has since become a blockbuster in its own right, with some great match-ups to look forward to. It was revealed in today’s press conference for the event that the winning team will receive a huge incentive in the form of the Riyadh Season Bonus prize.
The card will see some huge fights, with ‘The Bronze Bomber’, Deontay Wilder taking on ‘Big Bang’ Zhilei Zhang, Ammo Williams locking horns with Hamzah Sheeraz, Filip Hrgovic clashing with Daniel DuBois, Raymond Ford defending his world title against Nick Ball, and Craig Richards settling a score with Willy Hutchinson.
Dmitry Bivol remains on the card, despite opponent Artur Beterbiev pulling out of the bout with injury, and will now be facing 22-0, Malik Zanid.
The card will also see a score system implemented, whereby a points victory is worth 1 point, a KO victory is 2 points. However, just to make things even more exciting, each team has chosen a captain, who will get double the scores of any other fighter, so for the captain a decision victory is worth 2 points, and a KO victory is worth 4 points.
Team Matchroom, led by Eddie Hearn, has chosen Deontay Wilder as their captain, expecting him to stop Zhang. Team Queensbury, headed by Frank Warren, has opted to make Hamzah Sheeraz their captain.
Riyadh Season Bonus
In today’s press conference, it was revealed by Dev Sahni that the teams are not just fighting for bragging rights, but that there is an added incentive to win in the form of the Riyadh Season Bonus prize.
This prize is a bonus of three million dollars, which, when split equally five-ways, is a $600,000 bonus for each fighter on top of their contracted purses.
If the boxers weren’t painfully eager to win already, the additional Riyadh Season Bonus is sure to make for some exciting fights on Saturday night.
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