Weekend news roundup 23/09: Box office & boxing surprise

Jonathan Victoria • 23 Sep 2024 News

Plus Laver Cup, Squid Game & England cricket

Dubois shocks the world

Daniel Dubois caused arguably the biggest shock in boxing this year as he defeated Anthony Joshua via knockout in the fifth round.

Coming into the fight, the odds were heavily in Joshua’s favour to beat the defending IBF heavyweight champion on his road to getting back to the top and potentially setting up a big blockbuster matchup with Oleksandr Usyk for all the belts once more, or another all-British fight against Tyson Fury.

Instead, the young Dubois stunned Joshua and all those watching, knocking down the former two-time world heavyweight champion in the first and third rounds.

Dubois seemed to start showing signs of flagging in the fifth round, something which Joshua also noticed as he began to attack. But although it seemed the tides were turning, Dubois found one last flurry, catching Joshua with a right to the chin which he was unable to recover from.

The record crowd inside Wembley Stadium were raving at what had just occurred, as were the famous faces in attendance, including Fury, who seemed to lament his big payday which was coming for a bout with AJ following his expected win.

Credit: HUGE KNOCKOUT! 💥 Daniel Dubois vs Anthony Joshua | IBF Heavyweight Title Highlights (Sky Sports Boxing, YouTube)

Transformers fail to dethrone Beetlejuice

Transformers One was released to the US public over the weekend but despite being the bigger offering of the new films debuting, it was unable to take the top box office spot from Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

It was close though, with only $1m in it between the pair as Transformers One brought in $25m to the Beetlejuice sequel’s $26m.

The animated Transformers film is yet to be released everywhere internationally, with it set for an 11th October release here in the UK.

As for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, a third consecutive week at the top brings its domestic total close to the quarter-of-a-billion mark, currently sitting at $226.8m. A further $103m internationally has given it a very respectable $329.8m worldwide total, which if the calculations are correct is just over $100m more than the box office total for the original film when adjusted for inflation (made $84.5m in 1988).

Alcaraz leads Team Europe Laver Cup comeback

Carlos Alcaraz led a strong comeback victory for Team Europe in the Laver Cup after starting the final day down 8-4.

The Ryder Cup-style tennis tournament pits Team Europe against Team World, with Team Europe managing to take their first win since 2021.

Day one finished level at 2-2, but day two saw Team World take hold, winning three of the four matches that day to take a commanding 8-4 lead.

But with each match win worth three points on day three, Team Europe still had a chance, and Alcaraz made sure of it, putting the team on his back by playing and winning in the day’s opening doubles match, then going on to beat American Taylor Fritz in their singles contest to clinch it for his side.

Squid Game season two teaser

The highly anticipated second season of Netflix’s surprise hit shot Squid Games is still on track for its December release date, with Netlfix helping to ease the wait by dropping a new teaser trailer during Netflix Geeked Week 2024 Live.

The trailer seems to show season one survivor and main character Seong Gi-hun (played by Lee Jung-jae) back in the games, with new challenges to overcome.

Season two will be making its way to the streaming site on 26th December, with the following finale third season coming in 2026. Take a look at the season two teaser trailer below:

Australia take strong hold of England ODI series

Australia defeated England in the second ODI of the series to take a commanding 2-0 lead over the hosts and set themselves up for the series victory in tomorrow's third match.

It was a case of England failing to get things going on the batting end, Jamie Smith’s 49 from 61 being a team-best as they fell short of the 270 total Australia put up.

While not an entirely high score, it was enough for the visitors, who faired better when at the strike, with Alex Carey leading the way with 74 from 67 deliveries.

The series now hinges on the third game at The Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street, County Durham.