Daniel Dubois and Fabio Wardley meet in a rematch this Saturday from London’s O2 Arena, five months after a brutal first fight that saw Dubois take the WBO heavyweight title from Wardley in Manchester.
Will it be a repeat or even more dominant outing from Dubois this time, or will Wardley force a likely rubber match by getting a measure of revenge?
Dubois vs Wardley 2: Recent Form
by Scott Christ
The thing that matters most, obviously, is that this is an immediate rematch. Usually I’d look over all the recent results, and I still will,
but this time the focus is very much on the fact that these two just fought and we know what happened.
It started as a great fight. It wound up a pummeling and incredible display of courage and toughness from Fabio Wardley, but whenever we talk about someone’s “incredible display of courage and toughness,” 9.5 times out of 10 it’s a way to admire how brutally they were walloped for however long a fight lasts.
Dubois (23-3, 22 KO) beat the crap out of Wardley in May. Wardley had dropped Dubois in the first and third rounds, and otherwise it was a pretty dominant show; other than those two rounds, Dubois won every round, and he didn’t win them by poking and pecking and playing defense, he won them by doing severe damage until Howard Foster finally stopped it in Round 11.
Dubois’ previous five bouts saw him go 3-2, with two losses to Oleksandr Usyk, one controversial and one not. He knocked Anthony Joshua all around the ring at Wembley Stadium, he stopped Filip Hrgovic in eight, and he dominated “Big Baby” Miller.
Wardley (20-1-1, 19 KO) is still one of the most remarkable and unique success stories in modern boxing and if he loses again to Dubois, that won’t change. Losing at the top level of the sport is inevitable for everyone if they make it there; it’s crazy that he made it here at all. And he beat Joseph Parker, he rallied to stop Justis Huni who is a significantly better boxer than Wardley, and he thrashed Frazer Clarke in the rematch of a draw, which was impressive. He’s already made a lot more of a boxing career than he should have on paper.
Dubois vs Wardley 2: Style Matchup
by Patrick Stumberg
A high-level fight has the cadence of a debate. One side presents its arguments, the other makes a rebuttal, the first one adjusts its arguments accordingly, and so on. I was honestly a bit taken aback at how little of that there was when these two first met; Dubois had the plan down pat by the end of the fourth round and Wardley neither would nor could do anything about it. Once Dubois figured out his timing, all he had to do was dip his head and chuck a right hand of his own every time Wardley’s left hand twitched.
There were countless tweaks Wardley could have made to work himself back into the fight, but he insisted on just throwing the same looping 1-2 over and over regardless of how ineffective it became. No body jabs to lower Dubois’ hands, no left hooks to throw off Dubois’ cross counters, no straight rights to the chest to either catch Dubois dipping or scare him off from doing it in the first place, no defensive maneuvers beyond leaning back with a slight clockwise turn and his left hand at his waist. Hell, he threw maybe six uppercuts the whole fight despite Dubois’ biggest weakness being his tendency to bend forward and crash in, not increasing his usage even when two of those uppercuts produced his best non-knockdown shots of the evening.
Wardley is good at capitalizing on opportunities, but lacks any of the tools necessary to create his own, and now that Dubois and Don Charles know the score, they’ll be in short supply. As far as I can tell, all Dubois needs to do is the exact same thing as before: stay active and measured with the jab, follow Wardley’s jab back with counter rights and 1-2s, and avoid smothering his own work against the ropes. If Wardley were capable of dealing with that, he’d have shown at least some sign of doing so.
Dubois vs Wardley 2 Predictions: Who wins?
Scott: I have a ton of respect for Wardley and for the fact that this is the heavyweights, he can and will throw bombs, and a single shot can change everything. But picking that to happen is the same as dropping a couple dimes on a +950 parlay and your “winnings” before anyone takes the field. Dubois is flawed, Dubois gets hit, but Dubois is a better fighter. Wardley can win, but his only chance is a knockout, and I think he has to get it within maybe three rounds, or it’s not happening and he’s going to either take another beating, or the whole thing crumbles earlier this time, when maybe the resolve to keep going and being battered waiting for the inevitable stoppage may not be as strong a second time around. Daniel Dubois by TKO in Round 7
Patrick: I’ve seen this rematch compared to Zhang vs Joyce 2 and I’m inclined to view it in a similar light. Even without taking into account the horrific damage Wardley sustained the first time around, Dubois is too aware of and too well-equipped to punish Wardley’s shortcomings. Wardley’s game has the depth of a thimble; he had his chance to lamp Dubois before “Dynamite” figured him out, fell just short of pulling it off, and suffered the consequences. If the previous ass-kickings Wardley received weren’t enough to spur technical growth, I can’t imagine this one doing the trick, especially considering the healthy dose of CTE involved. It’ll be a mauling. Daniel Dubois by TKO in Round 4
