Daniel Dubois comes face to face with Fabio Wardley ahead of their world title clash in Manchester.
Dubois has had an up-and-down ride since he turned professional. He was much hyped early on, then lost when he stepped up to take on Joe Joyce, with many branding him a quitter after allowing himself to be counted out, despite the fact that he suffered orbital bone damage.
He rebuilt after that and worked his way to a world title shot with Oleksandr Usyk, which ended in a stoppage. ‘Dynamite’ Dubois he put together a fine run of his own KO wins over Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic and Anthony Joshua to become the IBF champion, only to lose once more to Usyk in their rematch.
Wardley is a former white collar boxer who has won the English, British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles on his way up by beating Nick Webb, Nathan Gorman and David Adeleye. He has also knocked out Frazer Clarke inside one round, and stopped Justis Juni and Joseph Parker in his last two fights, which saw him elevated him to WBO champion.
Speaking to DAZN Boxing, Dubois laid into Wardley’s trajectory so far.
“He’s been lucky up until now, and I need to take his 0.”
Many would argue the opposite is true, that Wardley has taken a hard route to the top and has had to convince people he is the real deal. He has thrown himself in the deep end and stepped up against challenging opponents at every stage of his career.
Taking a voluntary first defence of his WBO belt against ‘DDD’ in May is further proof of that.
