TWO BIG AND BRUTAL BRITISH BANGERS BATTLE IT OUT FOR HEAVYWEIGHT STARDOM IN MANCHESTER
In terms of the magnitude of fights in British boxing, it doesn’t get much bigger than an all-British heavyweight world title fight.
This isn’t just your ordinary heavyweight world title fight though.
This is a fight between two of the most devastating punchers in not just Britain, but the world.
42 wins between them, with 40 of those victories coming by way of stoppage.
Both men have had over 20 fights and yet both average four rounds a fight. Incredible.
The reigning champ, Fabio Wardley, has been on an incredible journey of his own.
With no amateur experience and just a handful of white-collar fights under his belt, he turned professional back in 2017 and, in his pro debut, he claimed a unanimous points decision victory over Jacub Wojcik over four rounds.
Scarily enough, that’s the last and only time Wardley has won on the judges’ scorecards.
Fast forward nine years and, with 20 more professional bouts to his name, he’s the reigning WBO World Heavyweight Champion.
He’s got there the traditional way, picking up the English, British and Commonwealth titles, with highlight-reel knockouts over the likes of David Adeleye, Frazer Clarke, Justis Huni and, most recently, Joseph Parker all on his résumé.
This is a dangerous man and, as it stands, he’s a dangerous man who doesn’t know how to lose.
On Saturday night, he faces the toughest test of his career in the shape of Daniel ‘Dynamite’ Dubois.
After a successful career as an amateur, he turned professional in 2017, funnily enough on the same day Wardley stepped into the ring for the first time as a professional, just on a different card.
He obliterated Marcus Kelly inside a round and then went on to pick up 14 stoppages from his first 15 fights before coming unstuck against Olympic silver medallist Joe Joyce in what was the first defeat of his career.
Despite the defeat, he bounced back in style with four straight knockout victories before once again falling short at the highest level, this time to one of the greatest heavyweights in boxing history, Oleksandr Usyk.
He stopped Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic and then, most famously, Anthony Joshua in a packed-out Wembley Stadium to become IBF World Heavyweight Champion, but he was dethroned less than a year later by his old foe, Usyk.
That was his last fight and, despite the defeat, he now finds himself thrown straight into a world title clash — and what a fight this is to be thrown into.
So, how will it go?
Well, to state the obvious, going off their previous fights, someone is more than likely going to get knocked out.
Dubois has hit the deck six times in his career and been stopped on three occasions, whereas despite never having been dropped, Wardley has been in a world of trouble, most notably in his first fight with Frazer Clarke, so both lads have shown that they aren’t indestructible.
The stats suggest that, out of the two, Dubois is a fair bit more efficient.
From his last four fights, Dubois has landed 35.4% of his punches compared to Wardley’s 26.6%.
In terms of power punches, which, let’s be honest, the result of the fight will probably come down to, Dubois has landed at a rate of 45.2%, with Wardley landing at a rate of 32.3%.
Despite both being so heavy-handed, their actual boxing skills are massively underrated.
Dubois’s jab is arguably one of the best in the division. It’s long, it’s powerful and he tends to hide it well. If he’s going to win this fight, he needs that jab to be working well from the off.
Wardley is always looking to land heavy and, considering the power he has, it’s easy to understand why.
Dubois CANNOT afford to let him plant his feet in range. Both have a 78-inch reach so they’re very evenly matched there, so it’ll be a case of who can be quickest to the punch.
For Wardley, it’s his hand speed that will prove key to winning him this fight.
He needs to frustrate Dubois with it. He needs to catch him when he thinks he’s out of range and mentally break him, and start to make him doubt himself.
We’ve seen Dubois be mentally broken down before in fights whereas, with Wardley, he’s shown on multiple occasions that he’s got that white-collar dog in him.
If Wardley can frustrate Dubois early on and stop him from getting into any sort of rhythm with his jab, it’ll put him in the driving seat.
But, as we have previously mentioned, these are two young men who carry the sort of power in both hands that can switch their opponents’ lights off in the blink of an eye.
It may be a chess match early on, with both wary of getting hurt, or we could just get them both going hell for leather from the first bell. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?
There’s a heck of a lot on the line in this fight, more so for Dubois.
If he does lose, it’ll be the fourth loss of his career. He’s only 28, so there will be plenty of time to rebuild once again, but if he gets the win, it’ll put him right in the mix to be the heir to Usyk’s throne once he decides to call it a day.
For Wardley, defeat arguably won’t be as bad — it just depends on how he loses.
He’s dug himself out of a hole enough times before against the likes of Huni and Parker, so even if he does lose, he’s still going to get the big fights and big paydays because of the unpredictability factor. He’ll just have lost his world title and be back in the queue for another world title shot.
It’s a big fight and the O2 will undoubtedly be bouncing, so if there’s one thing you CANNOT afford to do when the first bell goes, it’s blink, because this fight could well be over in a flash.