Referee stops boxer for provocative KO celebration (VIDEO)

Former super middleweight champion Caleb Plant was told to halt a gravedigging celebration after KO’ing his opponent Anthony Dirrell at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Saturday.

Later, following the main event, fans questioned Deontay Wilder’s first round finish of Finland’s Robert Helenius.

Plant made his first appearance in boxing since his maiden career defeat to Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in November of last year.

He had a grudge to settle due to Dirrell’s trash-talking in the build-up to fight night. Former two-time champion Dirrell teased that his opponent didn’t boast knockout power, but Plant proved him wrong toward the close of round nine when he landed a flush left hook on Dirrell’s jaw that sent him to the canvas.

The referee called the fight off with Dirrell crumpled in a heap. But he then had to stop Plant from celebrating the win by digging an imaginary grave for his foe.

“He called me all sorts of names, [and] even said ‘I’ll never let a white boy beat me'," Plant explained. “Let me explain something... skin color don’t win fights.”

Dirrell regained consciousness and got back on his feet as pundits and pans hailed the “perfect left hook”. “HOLY SH*T…did we just witness KO of the year?” one popular account asked.

The main event saw another finish, but one that split opinion. Also returning to the sport after a heavy loss, an 11th-round KO to WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in October 2021, Deontay Wilder met Robert Helenius and needed less than three minutes to dispose of the ex-European champion.

Backed up in the corner, Wilder picked his moment when Helenius tried to deliver a combination from a distance and sent his former sparring partner to the canvas three seconds before the bell could ring for the end of the first round.

Twitter boxing fans called a fix considering how easily Helenius went to ground, with one calling Wilder’s a “very dodgy KO.”

“And don't talk to me about ‘play [it] with sound on’. The sound you hear is actually Helenuis’ right hand landing following his jab,” he added.

“That was the biggest dive in a fight I have ever seen! I hope he got paid good!” another said.

“I’ve never seen a more blatant DIVE in professional boxing… this must be investigated,” a separate party demanded. “Bro got knocked out by a push…”

In his post-match interview, Wilder stated that he is “back.” “The excitement in the heavyweight division is back,” he claimed.