Fabio Wardley has revealed that Daniel Dubois used to “punch him up” when they sparred as younger men.
Wardley on Saturday at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, England makes the first defence of his reign as WBO heavyweight champion against Dubois, and while very aware of the very different paths they have pursued.
Dubois, 28, was groomed for greatness as a heavy-handed young professional widely recognised as potentially one of the world’s most exciting heavyweights.
Wardley, in contrast, in many respects looked up to Dubois despite being three years his senior, and because as a former white-collar boxer his progress as a professional was expected to be limited and slow.
Dubois stopped Anthony Joshua in an IBF heavyweight title fight a month before Wardley fought and beat Frazer Clarke – who he had previously drawn with – for the British and Commonwealth titles, and on an evening in October 2024 on which numerous observers of their entertaining first fight had predicted that he would lose.
However Wardley, on account of the heart that means he has recovered from losing positions to record impressive stoppages of Justis Huni and Joseph Parker, has surpassed all previous expectations to emerge as one of the world’s leading heavyweights and in many respects to overtake Dubois, whose leading critics continue to question the heart that they believed was lacking in two defeats by Oleksandr Usyk and another by Joe Joyce.
It is perhaps that knowledge of his ability to survive losing positions – in addition to his quiet confidence and the humility that has contributed so much to the way Wardley consistently improves – that makes him so willing to be open about sparring sessions that might intimidate others, but Wardley in so many respects remains an individual and a fighter unto himself.
“I don’t even know if I was pro by then,” Wardley said. “It was seven or eight years [ago], something like that and either I was or had just started. Maybe I’d had my first fight or second fight.
“I have got no qualms in saying he punched me up but I would beg him not to take anything from that spar and carry that through to now because that was a guy who [just] laced up a pair of gloves whereas he had an amateur career; junior champion; GB champion, this and all the others and I put on the gloves a few weeks ago and thought ‘Yeah let’s have a move around with Daniel Dubois’.
“I wasn’t nervous. I knew it would be a tough spar but I always kind of relished it and challenged it because it was minor incremental [improvements] that I would get a bit better. I would come out of sparring and, ‘Cor I only got punched up 15 times but that was two less than last week’, and it was fine. I didn’t care and wasn’t like score-keeping and thinking I had to win.
“I went into it knowing, ‘Currently you are better than me and I’ve got no problem with that; I’m trying to get better and the only way to do that is to compete with people better than me’. There is no point me staying in my little old white-collar gym and smashing up Steve who comes in every other week and thinking I am the man. For me, at that stage of my career, my mentality was get around, spar everyone as much as possible, and gain as much experience as you can.
“He was even more introverted back then.
“He was definitely up there as one of the big punchers I was in with, but there were a lot I was sharing the ring with at that time. There was [Derek] Chisora; there was Dillian Whyte; there was him; there was Filip Hrgovic. It wasn’t like he was a stand-out, it was just known that he was pretty solid and could whack a bit. There was even cruiserweights – I remember sparring Richard Riakporhe, he could whack and I remember him crack me as well and I was thinking, ‘Jesus, some of these boys can proper hit’, but again, that was seven or eight years ago. It was probably, some of it, due to how green I was – me taking shots and not even moving, taking it straight to the dome and that would rack my brain a bit.”
For every way in which Wardley’s relative rawness makes him unpredictable in the ring, Dubois continues to prove unpredictable outside of it. Defeat in his most recent contest, the rematch with Usyk in July 2025, came after he inexplicably was present at a house party earlier that day. It was then followed by him separating from Don Charles, the trainer who had led him to the impressive victories over Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic and Joshua that transformed his career, recruiting the experienced Tony Sims, and then months later splitting with Sims before having a single fight under him and rehiring Charles to prepare him for Saturday’s fight.
That Dubois had previously entered dates under Martin Bowers and Shane McGuigan is also in contrast to Wardley’s loyalty to Robert Hodgins, who he first worked with as a white-collar boxer and whose expertise he complemented, instead of replaced, as a professional with Ben Davison. It is, to Wardley’s mind, a character flaw that is perhaps holding Dubois back.
“It seems unsettled and doesn’t seem like the best course of action,” Wardley said. “And also seems to me that whether it is him or we know the story about his dad [Dave] and how much control he has, etcetera, etcetera, but it also seems to me like a lack of accountability. That whenever there is a fight or whenever you lose or something goes wrong, you immediately blame the trainer and leave that trainer and find another one. Maybe it is you. Maybe you didn’t listen, or you didn’t train or you didn’t do something. I think the default to look outward and blame someone is quite telling.
“Obviously it makes no odds to me. One trainer, two trainers or no trainer, I couldn’t care. For me with Daniel, and he is good don’t get me wrong – very good – but with all of these different trainers, he hasn’t really changed. Stylistically he hasn’t changed; the way he approaches things hasn’t really changed, he might have some different little things, but there’s been no overhaul or difference at all. So, it’s not like there’s a new trainer and I’m going to get there on the night and be like, ‘Fucking hell, who is this? This is a whole new Daniel Dubois’. It’s not going to be like that at all. He is who he is and he fights how he fights. They will tweak little bits along the way, but I don’t think a change of trainer has a massive effect on him like it does for some people.”
Wardley responded to narrowly being outboxed by Clarke in March 2024 to stop him inside a round in their rematch. He was convincingly outboxed by Huni when he dramatically and explosively stopped the Australian in the 10th, and also losing to Parker when he similarly dramatically stopped him in the 11th as recently as October.
There is, objectively, a considerable contrast with the defeats suffered by Dubois, who was horrifically injured against Joyce but twice against Usyk appeared capable of carrying on, and it is that streak – one absent in difficult contests against Miller and Hrgovic – that Wardley believes represents the greatest contrast between them, even while aware of how articulate he is and while describing the rival who turned professional on April 8, 2017, the same day as him, as an “introvert”. It, regardless, may yet prove relevant that their sparring sessions went as they once did; Dubois was full of confidence as the significant underdog against the decorated Joshua at a time when suggestions persisted that he had once hurt Joshua as a young man while they sparred.
“I guess that’s quite on the nose,” Wardley said. “That is the contrast. If it is not going his way, he nosedives and if it is not going my way, I stay the course, I stay focused and stay on track and I think that is evidence in the difference in our mentality.
“It’s not necessarily something new. We knew that before from the Joe Joyce fight, so say it never happened in the Usyk fight and it only happened once in the Joyce fight, I would still know it is there. I would still know it is in him to capitulate and back out. So, it is just more evidence on top of something I already saw there.
“I think there is a level of not being able to believe it that I have come from where I have come from and been able to achieve what I have been able to achieve. Every time it’s like, ‘He has to fall now; he has to go wrong now’, but I do laugh; there is always a caveat like it’s that or the Huni fight I was losing and ‘just’ pulled it out the bag or it was this. There is always a caveat of why; it is never ‘Fabio did well there and congrats’, so, yeah that will always follow me around one way or another.
“[Dubois] is someone people will look at and say ‘That is a respectable opponent’. A respectable opponent; former world champion; someone who has been in with some of the best guys.
“My plan is to be that person – I think the best way to [secure the biggest fights] is to be known for being the guy in real fights and who is entertaining and is value for money.”
