Boxing legend Frank Bruno has offered his thoughts on this weekend’s WBO heavyweight title showdown between Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois.
Many fans expect this bout to end inside the distance, and is aptly billed as ‘Don’t Blink.’ Despite becoming the IBF heavyweight champion in 2024, Dubois has never fought beyond round 10 in his 25 career bouts, knocking out all but one of his opponents in his 22 victories to date.
On Saturday, he jumps back into an immediate title challenge against another formidable puncher, after losing his crown to Oleksandr Usyk last July.
In Manchester, Dubois will collide with Wardley, who is undefeated and has never been dropped. The Ipswich fan-favourite has also won all but one of his contests inside of the distance, but has reached round 10 or later in three of his last four outings, going the full 12-round distance in his draw against Frazer Clarke.
Speaking with Seconds Out, former world heavyweight champion Bruno looked ahead to the intriguing clash between what is arguably the United Kingdom’s two biggest punchers and believes that Wardley will retain his WBO title.
“I am not too sure about that [whether Dubois can drop Wardley] because he is a very, very tough guy and I wouldn’t like to bet against him. Fabio is a very serious guy, you can see it in his eyes and some of his opponents, one of them got their jaw busted, when he punches you he makes you go breakdancing and body popping.
“[Daniel needs to] meet fire with fire because he isn’t going in there to mess around. He throws everything with bad intentions, if you’re going to fight him, you have to have bad intentions, as well.
“If he can keep to the Daniel that we all know, at his best, he will knock him for six – but I don’t think that he will do that with this guy [Wardley]. This guy is a very dangerous guy, a very confident guy and you can see that he desperately wants to do well for himself and he will do, with the power that he has got.”
Wardley-Dubois will be the sixth heavyweight title affair to have ever taken place in Manchester and looks poised to be the best of the lot.