Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois finally meet tomorrow in what promises to be one of the most explosive fights of the year featuring two massive punchers with Wardley’s WBO heavyweight title on the line.
The Co-op Live Arena in Manchester will host the fight and the entire boxing community is buzzing for the contest as both men have proved themselves to be dangerous operators in recent years.
Before losing to Oleksandr Usyk for a second time last summer, Dubois had looked one of the division's biggest threats for a number of years after scoring three consecutive stoppages over Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic, and Anthony Joshua.
Against Joshua, Dubois entered the ring a significant underdog, but he proved the doubters wrong with the best performance of his career as he repeatedly dropped the former world champion before landing a fifth-round knockout.
In Wardley, Dubois is coming up against a relentless fighter who never knows when he is beaten as he proved last year by coming from behind in two fights to stop Justis Huni and Joseph Parker.
Both men are insisting they will win by knockout and with the boxing world buzzing over what may go down, Tony Bellew , a former heavyweight campaigner and cruiserweight world ruler, has provided his thoughts on what will happen.
“This is a really, really good fight and I think it comes down to the first three or four rounds in my opinion,” said Bellew when speaking to DAZN News.
“If Wardley can get through these first few rounds and weathers a storm then I think he can get rid of Dubois somewhere between rounds six and eight.
“Daniel is a confidence fighter. He’s a bully, and if he gets success early in a fight then he builds on it and becomes so strong.
“The flipside to this is that he can lose belief if he hits a crisis early and that’s what Wardley will want to expose. If Wardley can somehow get through those first few rounds, then he can get a stoppage.”
The WBO world heavyweight title is on the line for Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois this Saturday, May 9, only on DAZN PPV. Buy as a one-off PPV or included, along with the Usyk vs Verhoeven (May 23), Fury vs. Hall (June 13) and Zayas vs. Ennis (June 27) PPVs, with a DAZN Ultimate Tier subscription.