Fabio Wardley speaks about his upcoming heavyweight title defense this weekend against Daniel Dubois and touches a bit on his journey to get to where he now is after getting a late start in the sport and his outlook going forward in his career. Check out some of what Wardley had to say with the full video segment in the link above.
Wardley on the possibility of Dubois landing his power against him
“It’s not over [if he lands against me]. It’s not great, but it’s not over. I think that’s the difference, I think that’s where things are being missed in terms of when
the comparisons are being made between us…We’re all heavyweights, we can all hit. It doesn’t take a lot past 16 stone, 17 stone — once you’re in them realms, you can be that big, anyone can take anyone out with a single punch. It’s not like we’re in incredibly different realms. It’s about the man, how they respond to being hit.”
On being the marginally favored
“I don’t read into that. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice in the back of my mind to know that people believe in me or I’ve got support or whatever else, but I can’t run in there on the night with that bit of paper in my hand and go ‘Daniel, you need to go down now because that’s what everyone’s expecting.’ Makes no difference, I still have to go do my job.”
On what he wants to accomplish in the next 18 months
“More fights, more big events and more belts. All I want to be is part of those big nights and big occasions. Once I’m done with boxing, done with this whole thing, I want to look back at my career as something to be proud of. Not only for the things that I achieved, the milestones and whatever else, but just for how genuinely I approached the sport of willingness to just compete and not play around and do all the gamesmanship.
“Like you see the Fury and AJ thing. Them two should’ve fought so long ago and it just circled and circled and circled. I never want my name to be in those types of conversations. I only want the name Fabio Wardley to be in the name of ‘yeah, he said yes to everyone, he would fight anyone, he always threw himself in the deep end.’ In my career I’m sure I’ll lose somewhere along the line but ultimately I’d rather that than know I never really tried or never really tested myself.”
