Paulie Malignaggi has broken down the mentality of heavyweights Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois ahead of their world title clash on May 9.
Wardley is the newest heavyweight world champion have been promoted to full WBO strap holder, following KO wins over Justis Huni and Joseph Parker last year, when Oleksandr Usyk vacated rather than defend against him.
He is now going into a tough first defence against ‘DDD’, who had a superb 2024 by beating Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic and Anthony Joshua all by stoppage, but was then stopped himself when he fought Usyk last time out in July.
Speaking to talkSPORT Boxing, Malignaggi said the timing for this fight could be perfect for Wardley.
“From Wardley’s perspective, I think it’s a shoot-out of a fight and I think Wardley is intelligent to get Dubois now cause you don’t know where Dubois’s mindset is at coming off the back of the Uysk knockout. Let’s remember, Dubois had a lot of momentum before the Usyk rematch and you almost think is he catching Usyk at the right time? He won a bunch of fights and they were talking about it a lot – Hrgovic, he stopped Miller, he was in good form.”
“The reason he had the [Usyk] rematch was cause the first fight was controversial so to get knocked out, I have a curiosity about where his head is at, where his confidence is at, cause he’s kind of hot and cold in his career, we’ve seen that. Dubois, if he starts picking up momentum is dangerous, but Dubois, if he’s unsure, he can look the polar opposite, and especially as Wardley can punch, he could get him out of there.”
Both of these men have a knockout to win ratios in the high 90s, so few if any are backing it to go the distance. Wardley will be guided by Ben Davison and Lee Wylie, while Dubois has recently rejoined Don Charles following a brief split, which many see as a good move.
