BoxRec

Evander wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 18:56

deadpan wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 18:53 I fear that through being so bad ass (and horribly reliant on the overhand right. How sapping those million misses must have been) Fabio will become very vulnerable from now on.

Good grief Ben.

Makes you wonder exactly what they were saying to him in the corner considering how many times he did it throughout the fight.

Quite!

jlh wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 18:56 Everyone wanted to stop it but no one had the balls too. Corner, Referee and Doctor was all hoping someone else would stop it instead of them...

Yep - all passing the buck.
It's the fighter's job never to give up - the ref and corner are there to protect him.

jlh wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 18:56 Everyone wanted to stop it but no one had the balls too. Corner, Referee and Doctor was all hoping someone else would stop it instead of them...

Ben didn't want to stop it. He was giving Wardley instructions instead of checking on his man's health.

There was a live stream waiting for the post-main event fight.. but it’s been deleted. And now they’re taking the ring apart

No Fawaz Aborode fight then?

If the situation was reversed I wonder if Foster would have stepped in rounds ago.

bigped wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 18:54

gb wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 18:49 Ref, doctor and Wardley corner when he was staggering around at the start of the tenth - worst thing I've ever seen in boxing.

That was outrageous ref was gonna stop it but sends him to doctor instead to check his face, really hope he’s going to be ok

One of the worst things I’ve seen in a long time - those two useless doctors, I mean what the hell were they thinking? absolute cowards, they didn’t want to make the call because of the crowd, but he was out on his feet before he even came to see them

Where do you even start with that?? Up there with one of the most brutal fights I've ever seen, Fabio Wardley is the hardest bastard in a world of hard bastards, mental start dropped Dubois 10 seconds in with a right hand over the top, caught him high on the head, Dubois recovered well though before same shot put him down again in the 3rd, took the knee but right thing to do, after that he was in the driving seat for the majority of the fight, his jab was excellent, he kept nailing Wardley with huge right hands, no idea what was keeping Wardley on his feet, the amount of times Dubois opened him up and he looked gone but then threw a haymaker, was busted up to fck, refused to go down or quit or stop trying, it was incredible, the 6th round was insane, so was the 9th, tbh it was all insane, Wardley had a little resurgence in the 9th, hurt Dubois for a moment but got nailed again, when Wardley came staggering out for the 10th it should've been stopped there and then, it got hard to watch, Dubois battered him in the round, the corner can't be sending Wardley out for the 11th, Dubois lands 1 big shot and the ref done the right thing

Kilburn wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 18:26 Foster managed to ruin arguably the most dramatic moment so far. Nice one.

That would have been the end I think, instead the ref screwed up one of the most exhilirating moments in boxing.

I guess Fabio's team thought he could get a flash KO again

Stop moaning

Ruthless-RKO wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 18:08 Damn.

If he had better balance he would have stayed up then.

Down again.

It's a good thing he took the knee or he might have lost the fight right there.

I expected it to be good but I didn’t expect the first 6 rounds to be that good. The first 6 rounds were out of this world.

What we saw after that was a disgrace.

Wardley was on unsteady legs since round 5 & for me he was done after round 6.

You could see his shots were no longer having an effect on Dubois. He just took an absolute battering for 4 1/2 rounds.

I’d take licenses off the cornerman and the referee. I hope Wardley is fit & healthy & able to fight again but I fear the worst.

Lastly, all the respect in the world to both Dubois & Wardley.

I’ve always said I respect fighters more for taking tough fights than occasionally ‘giving up’ because they’ve got nothing left in a tough fight.

Give me fighters like Dubois & Wardley every time over fighters who mess about with tune ups & don’t give us the fights we want.

Both are must watch. I can’t praise either of them enough.

Did they say if Fabio's getting a checkup?
Foster is all over the place with his poor/biased refereeing.

joshj909 wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 19:09 I guess Fabio's team thought he could get a flash KO again

But he was never busted up so badly, the decision should have been made on that.

If DDD had been taking a sustained hammering like that and taken the knee to be counted out he would have got pelters again. But it would have been the right thing to do as that fight has probably ruined Wardley. DDD turned out to be smarter than everyone.

gilgamesh wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 18:35 Unreal! This may be the best Heavyweight fight ever at this point honestly.

Calm down mate

Spud MK2 wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 19:13 Stop moaning

No one is moaning. Just discussing a fight.

keithmoonhangover wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 18:51 If Daniel Dubois is the second best heavyweight in the world, we are living in the weakest heavyweight division since god was a lad.

You must have forgot the Klitschko era Keith. Large breasted challengers with the stamina to throw 10 punches a round against robotic Champions.

There were some pretty incredible rock-em-sock-em robot replays in that fight, where both should have been KOed

jamesmcdonnell wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 18:48Did wardly injure his leg during thr bout?

Seemed to be limping last few rounds

I noticed he had a problem with it much earlier, but was still able to get it under him for lunging attacks. It was his movement otherwise, especially defensive, that seemed to falter. We'll have to see what he says.

I was internally pleading with his corner to tell him to stop loading up in the opening rounds, cos I was getting knackered just watching him miss with those downtown overhands. For big sections of the fight I felt either could've dominated with the jab (more so in Dub's case, who couldn't seem to miss with his). Wardley fought throughout like an injured or hurt man in need of the dramatic stoppage. If he'd aimed a bit lower he might've had one.

Great fight, but obviously marred by the terrible lack of safeguarding. I hope he's generally okay after that. As for Dubois, he's nails as long as he can visualise a way to win. I think he could've beaten that count in the Usyk rematch had he fathomed any route to victory.

Joyce maybe comes out of this looking better, historically. What a shame he wasn't offered a shot straight after Parker.

Im sorry, but selling this as s great fight is horseshite.

It was exciting for the first 7, but wardley basically spammed the same move over and over, and only his incredible chin kept him in the fight.

The two flash knockdowns aside, how many clean shots did fabio land?

Fun for 7 rounds, and there was a small chamce fabio landed a hail mary.

Anybody thinking this is an ATG heavyweight title fight needs to dust off holy v bowe 1 and 2, and 3 even, or Foreman v Lyle.

Grilling Machine wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 20:32

jamesmcdonnell wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 18:48Did wardly injure his leg during thr bout?

Seemed to be limping last few rounds

I noticed he had a problem with it much earlier, but was still able to get it under him for lunging attacks. It was his movement otherwise, especially defensive, that seemed to falter. We'll have to see what he says.

I was internally pleading with his corner to tell him to stop loading up in the opening rounds, cos I was getting knackered just watching him miss with those downtown overhands. For big sections of the fight I felt either could've dominated with the jab. Wardley fought throughout like an injured or hurt man in need of the dramatic stoppage. If he'd aimed a bit lower he might've had one.

Great fight, but obviously marred by the terrible lack of safeguarding. I hope he's generally okay after that. As for Dubois, he's nails as long as he can visualise a way to win. I think he could've beaten that count in the Usyk rematch had he fathomed any route to victory.

Joyce maybe comes out of this looking better, historically. What a shame he wasn't offered a shot straight after Parker.

Yeah, also, did he throw a single left hand with any force?

No. He didn’t

I tend to think there are two types of great fight: the ones that stand up to repeat viewings (Foreman-Lyle for sure*), and the ones that electrify in the moment but don't, like this one.

*Someone mentioned Tito-Vargas on here the other day, prompting another rewatch.