Former Amir Khan rival has his say on Fabio Wardley vs Daniel Dubois

Fabio Wardley will defend his WBO heavyweight title against Daniel Dubois on May 9 and the fascinating all-British battle is a fight that has got the entire boxing community excited. 

Wardley was upgraded to WBO champion after stopping Joseph Parker last year and that capped off a superb 2025 for the Ipswich man who had also stopped Justis Huni earlier in the year. 

For Dubois, has team has worked tirelessly to secure ethe shot and he enters the bout on the back of a defeat after he was beaten by Oleksandr Usyk last summer, a fight that saw him get stopped and loses his IBF title in the process. 

Despite that setback, Dubois is ready to go again, and he has many backers in this fight due to his experience at the highest level and also his explosive punching power. 

The heavy-handed pair are heading to Manchester in just over two months for the fight and already people are speculating on the outcome. 

Paulie Malignaggi, a former world champion and now one of boxing’s leading voices, has delivered his verdict for the upcoming fight. 

“From Wardley’s perspective, I think it’s a shoot-out of a fight and I think Wardley is intelligent to get Dubois now because you don’t know where Dubois’s mindset is at coming off the back of the Usyk knockout,” said Malignaggi when speaking to Talksport. 

“Let’s remember, Dubois had a lot of momentum before the Usyk rematch, and you almost think is he catching Usyk at the right time? He won a bunch of fights, and they were talking about it a lot – Hrgovic, he stopped Miller, he was in good form.” 

“The reason he had the [Usyk] rematch was cause the first fight was controversial so to get knocked out, I have a curiosity about where his head is at, where his confidence is at, cause he’s kind of hot and cold in his career, we’ve seen that.  

“Dubois, if he starts picking up momentum is dangerous, but Dubois, if he’s unsure, he can look the polar opposite, and especially as Wardley can punch, he could get him out of there.”