Saudi crackdown on British Press freedom: Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois organisers BAN journalist from Wembley for calling fight ‘unashamed sportswashing exercise transforming London into Saudi Disneyland’

A British journalist was barred from Saturday’s showpiece fight between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois at Wembley after labelling the event an ‘unashamed sportswashing exercise’.

Dubois dominated Joshua to earn a stunning victory in front of the packed-out Wembley crowd, defending his IBF heavyweight title after landing a decisive knockout blow in the fifth round to send the 34-year-old Brit to the canvas.

The two British stars went toe-to-toe at Wembley as part of the first Riyadh Season card to be held in the UK, with a record-breaking 98,000 fans inside the venue.

Turki Alalshikh, a member of the Saudi royal court, was instrumental in arranging the highly-anticipated heavyweight bout on Saturday.

It led to the showpiece event beginning with a rendition of Saudi Arabia’s national anthem rather than God Save the King, which subsequently followed. The stadium also glistened with green lighting to honour those financially backing the fight.

Joshua suffered a stunning defeat as Dubois knocked him out inside five rounds at Wembley

Turki Alalshikh was instrumental towards the organisation of Saturday’s showpiece in London

Oliver Brown, a journalist from The Telegraph, has opened up on his experience of being barred from the fight on Saturday, having labelled the build-up to Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois as ‘Saudi Disneyland’ and ‘a convenient vehicle for projecting the kingdom’s cachet to the world.’

Brown, whose comment piece was published by the newspaper on Friday morning, received an email from a senior PR executive working on the fight, which read: ‘Shall I presume from your opinions that you no longer wish to attend as clearly you do not agree with Saudi Arabia’s involvement in boxing?’

Despite issuing a reply to clarify that he would still like to attend the event, the journalist has now revealed that he was turned away and ‘marooned’ at the entrance on Saturday night, informed that his credential had been revoked.

It is also alleged that no message was sent to Brown ahead of his arrival to confirm that his credential had been revoked. 

He claims, in fact, that an email from Frank Warren’s Queensbury Promotions arrived early in the afternoon to explain where it could be collected. 

Wembley was stunned as Joshua failed to recover from a brutal right-hook in the fifth round

‘AJ’ was sent crashing to the canvas after the superb counter-punch from rival Dubois 

In his column published by the newspaper on Monday morning, Brown described the revocation as ‘a Saudi-style crackdown on freedom of the press in the heart of London’. He also branded the event ‘sportswashing on steroids’ and ‘a grisly conduit for glorifying the Saudi regime on British soil’.

A group of boxing fans criticised the decision to play the Saudi Arabian national anthem at Wembley prior to Joshua’s defeat by Dubois, urging that it would have been more appropriate to play God Save the King first.

One fan took to social media to write: ‘How do you sing the Saudi Arabia national anthem BEFORE the host nation’s — and both fighter’s anthems.’

Another added: ‘Can anyone explain to me why the Saudi national anthem was played before the British national anthem at the British national stadium with two British nationals fighting in front of a British crowd just asking.’

A group of boxing fans voiced their frustration at the Saudi national anthem being played first

A third social media user agreed, writing the following statement on Twitter, now known as X: ‘This is so embarrassing, how can they play that first?’. 

Meanwhile, a fourth wrote: ‘No disrespect or anything but why is the Saudi anthem being played before the British anthem when it’s two British boxers fighting? Surely should have been the other way round.’