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Daniel Dubois has warned Fabio Wardley not to judge him by his losses to Oleksandr Usyk. On Saturday, at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, England, Dubois will become Wardley's first challenger for the WBO heavyweight title. This will also be his first fight since his defeat to Usyk.
It was in the rematch with Usyk in July 2025 that Dubois delivered his most unconvincing performance of his three career defeats – the first being against Joe Joyce in 2020 – when he was stopped in the fifth round but appeared capable of continuing. He was also stopped by Usyk in 2023 in a more competitive nine-round bout, and by Joyce in the tenth round in 2020, when he suffered a horrific orbital bone fracture near his left eye.
“I fought the best boxer of a generation, so I’m not down in the dumps or anything like that, I’m just thinking about moving forward and a lot of personal things,” Dubois said.
The 31-year-old Wardley endured a brutal, bloody battle against Frazer Clarke in 2024 and secured comeback victories against Justis Huni and Joseph Parker in 2025.
“The lessons learned are that he’s a great southpaw boxer. He’s a great southpaw champion, and I need to go back to basics and try again. I feel like this time we’ll get it right, with the training and everything else, it’s going to be perfect – I just have that feeling. He’s the greatest boxer of the generation. He’s like your Muhammad Ali – great for his generation – but now I’m here, in a real fight. It’s just a process, and I immediately got back to work and started looking for the next opponent, watching the heavyweight division and seeing who would be next. I’m glad I got this opportunity. Wardley is not like him. Usyk is a southpaw, whereas I will have answers for Fabio. He can try southpaw, but I’m already experienced. I’ve faced Usyk twice, I’ve faced ‘AJ’, I’ve faced all these great boxers. I have that experience on my side.”
The 28-year-old Dubois downplayed the implications of being at a house party earlier on the day of his third loss – “That wasn’t a factor, it had nothing to do with it; that’s in the past now, so I’m moving on” – and also, initially, his split with then-trainer Don Charles, whom he replaced with Tony Sims, until he returned to Charles as the Wardley fight date approached.
“Don is my trainer for my next fight, and I’m happy to be back with him – that’s all that matters,” he said. “No disrespect to Tony, obviously Tony is good, but this is the best decision I’ve made for my career.”
“So far, Wardley has been lucky – he’s been fortunate,” he said. “I’m going to be the one to take his zero in the loss column. I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again. I mean he’s been lucky in the way he’s gotten away with things; he’s unorthodox, so a lot of boxers aren’t used to that; they do things just by reaction; it’s different. I’ll be ready for him on fight night. We sparred years ago. I dominated him in sparring back then. I dominated him, but I understand things change; he’s obviously progressed since then. I expect the best version of him, and I will certainly be in my best shape,” Dubois stated emphatically to boxingscene.com.
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