Barry McGuigan has been reflecting on Fabio Wardley‘s loss to Daniel Dubois in his maiden world title defence.
Wardley was elevated to full champion following his win over Joseph Parker back in October. As was the case in his previous fight with Justis Huni, the Ipswich man seemed to be falling behind on the cards but pulled out a late KO to rescue the win.
Going into this one, he was the more active fighter as Dubois had not fought since last August when he was stopped for a second time by the two-time undisputed champion, Oleksandr Usyk.
It was maybe a touch of ring rust, which meant that ‘DDD” was knocked down in the first 10 seconds of the opening round of the fight with Wardley, and then again in the third round. Neither was too heavy, however, and Dubois soon rallied by establishing his jab before landing the much bigger shots.
Wardley showed huge heart while taking plenty of damage to his eyes and nose, but never once went down before the fight was eventually stopped in early in the 11th round.
Speaking to Seconds Out, McGuigan was honest with his assessment of whether the pair should do it again.
“I genuinely don’t think he should take that rematch. I think it’s too dangerous. I genuinely think he took way too much punishment, and that was so severe, if I was him, I would never fight again.”
With the win, Dubois became a two-time world champion and his father was quick to call out young rising star Moses Itauma as the one they want next.
