{"id":649978,"date":"2026-05-05T19:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T19:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/649978\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T19:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T19:47:09","slug":"fabio-wardley-opens-up-on-old-sparring-sessions-with-daniel-dubois-ahead-of-title-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/649978\/","title":{"rendered":"Fabio Wardley Opens Up on Old Sparring Sessions With Daniel Dubois Ahead of Title Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fabio Wardley knows that Daniel Dubois has gotten the better of him<\/a> in the past. He is warning the former champion not to read too much into their previous training sessions ahead of their WBO title fight on May 9.<\/p>\n

Both fighters hail from England, allowing them to cross paths on multiple occasions early in their careers. Wardley admitted that Dubois “punched him up” during their sparring sessions nearly a decade ago, before warning ‘Dynamite’ that it would be a different story on May 9.<\/p>\n

“I have got no qualms in saying he punched me up but I would beg him not to take anything from that spar and carry that through to now because that was a guy who [just] laced up a pair of gloves, whereas he had an amateur career,” Wardley said via BoxingScene<\/a>. “[Dubois was a] junior champion, GB champion, this and all the others. I just put on the gloves a few weeks ago and thought, ‘Yeah, let’s have a move around with Daniel Dubois.'”<\/p>\n

Although Wardley, 31, is three years older than Dubois, they made their professional debuts on the exact same night \u2014 April 8, 2017. Wardley, however, did not have a traditional amateur career before going straight into the professional ranks, while Dubois competed 18 times as an amateur before his official debut.<\/p>\n

Fabio Wardley gets candid about Daniel Dubois training sessions\"Fabio<\/p>\n

Fabio Wardley | IMAGO\/Action Plus<\/p>\n

While Wardley admitted that Dubois was the better boxer when they sparred, he still did not put ‘Dynamite’ on a pedestal. Wardley said Dubois was not a “stand-out” compared to the other veterans he shared the ring with, including Derek Chisora and Dillian Whyte.<\/p>\n

“He was definitely up there as one of the big punchers I was in with, but there were a lot I was sharing the ring with at that time,” Wardley said. “There was [Derek] Chisora; there was Dillian Whyte; there was him; there was Filip Hrgovic. It wasn\u2019t like he was a stand-out; it was just known that he was pretty solid and could whack a bit. <\/p>\n

“There was even cruiserweights \u2014 I remember sparring Richard Riakporhe, he could whack and I remember him crack me as well and I was thinking, ‘Jesus, some of these boys can proper hit.’ But again, that was seven or eight years ago. It was probably, some of it, due to how green I was \u2013 me taking shots and not even moving, taking it straight to the dome and that would rack my brain a bit.”<\/p>\n

Wardley brings a 20-0-1 record into his first defense of the WBO regular heavyweight title. He won the interim title with a semi-controversial 11th-round TKO win over Joseph Parker<\/a> in October, 2025, before being promoted to full champion a few months later.<\/p>\n

Dubois brings a 22-3 record to the table ahead of his seventh world title fight. The 28-year-old is coming off a brutal seventh-round knockout loss to Oleksandr Usyk in July 2025 for the undisputed heavyweight title, his second loss to ‘The Cat’ in his last five fights.<\/p>\n

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