Wardley and Dubois set for heavyweight collision course

Lennox Lewis ended nigh-on a hundred years of what Americans delighted in describing as a century of horizontal British heavyweights.

Now world heavyweight champions from ‘the old country’ are springing up as regularly as tulips in springtime. Nourished by repetitive Battles of Britain for the single richest prize in sport.

The latest edition: Fabio Wardley versus Daniel Dubois for the WBO title in Manchester this Saturday night.

The comparisons and corollaries are endless. Lewis was anointed by acclamation in 1992 after Riddick Bowe dumped the WBC belt in a London dustbin rather than face a mandatory challenge from the greatest of all our be-gloved giants. Eight months later Lewis authenticated his claim to that title in the ring by defeating one-time IBF world champion Tony Tucker.

Wardley was promoted by decree last November from interim WBO belt-holder to full champion when Oleksandr The Great Usyk vacated that version of his several titles. Seven months on he seeks validation in the ring against our former IBF world champion Dubois.

Lewis would defend his title against Frank Bruno in a domestic thriller – knocking out the people’s favourite with a Hail Mary when behind in the seventh round – en route to his elevation to the hallowed pantheon of three-time heavyweight champions.

Fabio Wardley (left) and Daniel Dubois (right) will battle it out for the WBO world title on Saturday evening

He who hits first and hardest in this weekend’s potential slug-fest will hope to take another step in similar direction against the winner this autumn between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. Perhaps both in due course.

Where the narrative diverges is that Wardley cut his gum-shielded teeth in the boozy rough-and-tumble of white-collar boxing, not the amateurs. Those who make mockery neglect how once he crossed over to full-time professional he followed in Lewis’s footsteps by graduating through British, Commonwealth and European titles.

Although – in common with Dubois, Joshua and Fury to name but three – he has benefited from the decline of US boxing. Especially at heavyweight. The smirking is now behind the other glove.

Not one of the current crop of American heavies would truly fancy chancing their chins against the devastating punching power of either Wardley or Dubois right now. The records of both are ripe in knock-outs.

Dynamite Daniel won his IBF belt by flooring AJ four times and out, inside five rounds. ‘No Nickname’ Fabio reached interim title status by wiping out the respected ex-world champion Joseph ‘Maori’ Parker’s substantial points lead with an 11th round thunderbolt.

Not for nothing is Frank Warren promoting this Saturday night’s duel as ‘Don’t Blink’. Both combatants have urgent issues to prove.

Wardley cannot deny that he feels slighted by all the deprecating white-collar insinuations: ‘Don’t think this will ever leave me. There is disbelief that given where I come from I’ve been able to achieve what I have.

‘Every time it’s like I’ll fall now. I’ll get found out this time. Or I’ve “just” pulled a losing fight out of the bag. Always a caveat. Never well done Fabio. Congrats Fabio. I have to laugh.’

Wardley was promoted by decree last November from interim WBO belt-holder when Oleksandr Usyk vacated the title

Not that he was amused when the WBO belt arrived in the post and the inscription on one of the medallions read ‘The White Rhino’. The nickname for cult British heavyweight Dave Allen.

‘Everyone knows that’s Dave,’ says Wardley. ‘My first thought was that this may be a disrespecting of my white collar background. But no point making a fuss. People make mistakes. Then a little laugh as I sent it back and they sent me another which just says Fabio Wardley. I don’t have or want to be known by a nickname. Just my name. Fabio is different enough.’

This crossover from an earlier business career makes for an articulate as well as late starter in the hardest game. So he chooses his words tellingly when identifying one advantage he believes he holds over this opponent.

When asked if he derives optimism from the three times he has seen Dubois stopped – once with a busted eye-socket by Joe Joyce, twice when seeming psychologically overwhelmed by the boxing genius of Usyk – Wardley says: ‘I know from our sparring that Daniel’s one of the heaviest punchers in the game. Like me. But I’ve always known that it’s in him to capitulate. To back down. If it’s not going his way he nose dives.

‘If it’s not going my way I stay the course. Stay focused. Stay on track. That’s the difference in mentality. That’s this fight, on the nose.’

Dubois is usually the quiet man, waiting to explode in the ring. But he is maturing as a person now and has come up with this fascinating analogy for his losing of the IBF title to Usyk and what it will take to be champion again: ‘Usyk is the greatest boxer of his generation so being defeated by him was no reason to be down on myself. It’s like some mistakes which cause a personal relationship to break down. Then you work out how to start over again. So this is like trying to get my girlfriend back and I have this feeling that’s it going to be perfect.’

Neither fighter considers their switch-backing of trainers to be important. Dubois has reappointed his long time coach Don Charles, while his interim mentor Ben Davison is now training Wardley.

Dubois: ‘I’m comfortable being back with Don the man I know best.’ Wardley: ‘Whoever’s in the corner will not make much difference to the way we both fight. We’re punchers.’

Dubois is maturing as a person and has more experience against better fighters than Wardley

That they are. Hence the ‘Don’t Blink’ advice to the spectators in the Co-Op Arena and the viewers via television. Which is also the reason why most predictions come down to this: ‘The one who lands the first big blow wins.’

Boxing is never that simple. Dubois’ counter-balances to Wardley’s doubt about his resilience are that he is not only the younger – 28 fights 31 – but also the more experienced by way of such weightier names on his career resume as Joshua and, twice, Usyk the professor of the noble art.

That education has conferred on Triple D a left jab like a steam-train piston which opens up opponents for the KO.

Which brings the only British world heavyweight champion prior to Lennox Lewis back into this intriguing equation. Bob Fitzsimmons, who reigned supreme from 1897 to 1899, is still ranked by Ring Magazine as the eighth biggest heavyweight puncher of all time.

Remarkable that he should sit so high in such company as Jack Johnson, James Jeffries, Joe Louis, George Foreman, Jack Dempsey, Joe Frazier, Sonny Liston, Mike Tyson, Earnie Shavers, Larry Holmes, Deontay Wilder, Riddick Bowe, Lewis of course and Muhammad Ali himself.

All the more so since Cornish Bob, who claimed also world titles at middleweight and light heavyweight, came to the ring weighing no more than 170 pounds. That’s right, 12st 2lbs – which is one imperative reason why revered ring historian Nat Fleischer crowned him the greatest pound-for-pound puncher ever.

Wardley and Dubois scale between 245 and 250 lbs. Which is why it would be wise not to blink while Dubois goes for an early knock-out and to keep eyes wide open if Wardley can take him into the deep water of the later rounds.