War #2 – Daniel Dubois and Fabio Wardley meet again

It was one of those heavyweight battles that many fans dream of.

There was skill, but more toe-to-toe slugging with no regard for defense.

It was exciting. And brutal. Like riding a rollercoaster.

Daniel Dubois and Fabio Wardley meet again at the O2 Arena this Saturday night.

Dubois was knocked down twice. He looked shocked. The ringside announcers were writing his boxing obituary.

He got up with no expression. Glanced at his corner.

Dubois had been in this type of predicament before. In 2022, Kevin Lerena had him on the canvas three times in the opening round, tearing his ACL. Dubois ignored his knee pain and stopped Lerena two rounds later.

The fighter he can’t ignore is Oleksandr Usyk, who stopped him twice. Usyk’s boxer’s brain bamboozled Dubois.

Boxing people wrote off Dubois, who, 10 months after his devastating loss to Usyk, faced undefeated Fabio Wardley.

Wardley was rolling, having scored 19 knockouts in 20 wins. He was on the rise, while Dubois, only 28, was falling fast.

When the fighters met last May, most favored Wardley to send Dubois packing.

Wardley was coming off an exciting victory over Joseph Parker, while Dubois had lost his last bout.

In the early rounds, a Wardley win looked inevitable. Down twice, Dubois had to find a way back into the fight against the powerful and free-punching Wardley.

“I was coming off a defeat last time, so I was a bit nervous and stuff,” said Dubois after the bout.

He claimed the knockdowns didn’t bother him.

“It’s a war. When you get in the water, you’re going to get wet, and I love every bit of it.”

One thing about Dubois: he’s resilient. His three losses were more than most boxers could handle.

This is a guy whose courage people had once questioned. Not anymore.

Dubois went back to the basics. He pumped his jab repeatedly. Wardley’s nose began to leak in round six. His right eye grew worse with every passing minute. Dubois began teeing off, and somehow, Wardley remained standing.

Finally, in round 11, referee Howard Foster stopped the fight. Wardley had taken a horrific beating.

Now Wardley is the fighter trying to make a comeback. Now he’s the underdog. Wardley said last week that he learned a lot from his first defeat.

“I felt like I was a victim of my own success in the early stages,” Wardley said.

Still, he wasted no time activating the rematch clause.

“It was me that triggered the rematch clause, and it was me who basically said to Frank and the team, ‘I want this as soon as possible.’ Wardley told Ring Magazine. “I reviewed it. I know what went wrong, and I want to set it right.”

Some were surprised. Would it have been more prudent to wait a while longer? Maybe have a tune-up fight.

Apparently not.

“I have proven time and time again that I am able to adapt, adjust, change, develop,” said Wardley.

True, he did that earlier in his career. He’s loaded with guts and determination.

Dubois is hardly a wordsmith. His prediction for the fight gets right to the point.

“Victory by knockout, by any means necessary,” he told the BBC.

War 2?

Let her go.