Fabio Wardley has assessed the power of Daniel Dubois, who is widely regarded as one of the sport’s biggest punchers, ahead of their rematch on October 17.
It was announced last Saturday that their second encounter will take place at London’s O2 Arena, where Wardley secured an 11th-round stoppage of Joseph Parker last year.
In doing so, he claimed the WBO ‘interim’ heavyweight title and was later upgraded to full world champion, shortly after Oleksandr Usyk vacated his belt.
Wardley then made a voluntary defence in May, when he floored Dubois in the first 10 seconds of their contest in Manchester before scoring a second knockdown in round three.
Dubois, however, remained composed and established his jab, eventually orchestrating an 11th-round stoppage after proving to be the superior technician.
Proceedings had even become increasingly one-sided, with Wardley displaying tremendous durability and spirit while also enduring a brutal beatdown.
Rather true to form, though, the 31-year-old showed no hint of fear and promptly activated the rematch clause in their contract, expressing full belief in exacting his revenge to become champion once more.
Speaking with Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions, the Ipswich man admitted that Dubois does hit seriously hard – just not hard enough to deter him from seeking a stoppage himself.
“I’m never going to say he’s not a big puncher, because he is.
“He’s a big, strong, well-built, athletic guy. And he does punch pretty hard.
“[But], weirdly, not as hard as I thought [he would]. And I think that also played into the fact of how things played out, because I took a few shots coming in and thought, ‘Okay, they’re not the most fun but they’re also not the most concerning’.”
Wardley then added that he was happy to take heavy shots on the chin, so as to try and land a few of his own.
That will likely be the plan again in the rematch, with the two heavyweight punchers expected to start where they left off. Whether or not the can produce another fight of the year contender or one man has made the adjustments to engineer an early finish remains to be seen.
