{"id":659657,"date":"2026-05-09T11:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T11:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/659657\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T11:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T11:06:10","slug":"tony-bellew-predicts-fabio-wardley-vs-daniel-dubois-and-highlights-key-reason-behind-his-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/659657\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Bellew predicts Fabio Wardley vs Daniel Dubois and highlights key reason behind his pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fabio Wardley is set to defend his WBO heavyweight title against knockout artist Daniel Dubois on May 9 at the Co-op Arena in Manchester.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Wardley vs Dubois is one of the most anticipated British heavyweight fights of the year. With both men carrying serious knockout power, many expect an explosive contest once they step into the ring.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the showdown, Tony Bellew has shared his prediction for the heavyweight clash,\u00a0 slightly leaning toward the unbeaten WBO heavyweight champion.<\/p>\n

Despite Dubois\u2019 experience at the world level, Bellew believes Wardley\u2019s resilience and mentality could prove decisive.<\/p>\n

Bellew praises Wardley\u2019s mentality<\/p>\n

In his recent appearance on \u2018talkSport Boxing, Bellew admitted that Wardley has repeatedly proven him wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cFabio has been absolutely amazing,\u201d Bellew said.<\/p>\n

The former cruiserweight world champion explained that he doubted Wardley several times in the past, only to watch him survive difficult moments and come back stronger.<\/p>\n

\u201cA couple of times I have thought that he was going to get beat and he has shown me up and come really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bellew also believes the WBO heavyweight champion possesses more versatility compared to Dubois.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing with Fabio is, he has more strings to his bow than Daniel does, so he has more ways that he can win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bellew highlights Wardley\u2019s comeback ability<\/p>\n

Bellew pointed to Wardley\u2019s fights against Justis Huni and Joseph Parker as examples of his ability to survive adversity and still emerge victorious.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has shown he can get off the floor, ride out the really tough moments in fights,\u201d Bellew explained.<\/p>\n

The former cruiserweight world champion even admitted that Wardley managed to win fights where he appeared to be behind on the scorecards.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was losing every round against Justis Huni and he was losing against Joseph Parker,\u201d Bellew said.<\/p>\n

However, Bellew believes Wardley\u2019s unbeaten record gives him enormous confidence in dangerous moments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat undefeated thing that he has got going, it stands him in such good stead,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Bellew says Dubois must \u2018nail\u2019 Wardley to win<\/p>\n

Bellew emphasized that Wardley\u2019s mentality makes him extremely difficult to break mentally or physically.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to nail Fabio Wardley to the floor to beat him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Bellew, Wardley thrives when doubted and embraces pressure situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has got this \u2018me against the world\u2019 attitude,\u201d Bellew explained.<\/p>\n

The British boxing analyst warned that Dubois will need to fully finish Wardley if he wants victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will have to really nail him to the floor to beat him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Bellew acknowledged Dubois absolutely has the ability to win, he still slightly favors Wardley heading into the matchup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not saying that it is impossible, but I make Fabio a slight favourite.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Ahead of the fight, things between , and both fighters have vowed to knock each other out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the official weigh-in<\/a>, the former IBF heavyweight champion came in at 251.7 pounds, while the unbeaten WBO heavyweight champion Wardley weighed 242.2 pounds. Despite the differences, both heavyweights appeared confident ahead of the showdown, and their final face-off<\/a> added even more intensity to the matchup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fabio Wardley is set to defend his WBO heavyweight title against knockout artist Daniel Dubois on May 9…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,7701,110098,85,53568],"class_list":["post-659657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-daniel-dubois","tag-fabio-wardley","tag-sports","tag-tony-bellew"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}