Well, it shouldn’t, but it can. In this case, it will. If, as expected, Wardley defends his WBO heavyweight belt against Dubois in Manchester on May 9, we will see, not for the first time, a world champion defend a belt he didn’t win in the ring against a challenger who didn’t have to win a fight to land the opportunity. It is, in many ways, a perfect summation of why boxing manages to perplex outsiders and why organisations like Zuffa Boxing feel they can barge their way in and clean up the mess. It is also, for Wardley, a bizarre situation to find himself in. On the one hand, yes, he will be proud to be holding that WBO belt on May 9 and thrilled to be fighting his countryman in a genuinely fascinating fight. Yet, on the other hand, the man from Ipswich has already had something of an identity crisis as a result of the manner in which he won his WBO belt without Dubois then being served up as his first challenger.
