The tagline for Fabio Wardley vs Daniel Dubois is “Don’t Blink”, but the host of Friday’s weigh-in peculiarly set his sights beyond this fight – and on the looming presence of Moses Itauma in the heavyweight division.
“Is either of you the landlord, or are you just squatters, waiting for Moses Itauma to come and take the property?” asked Simon Jordan, referencing Anthony Joshua’s recent message to Tyson Fury, as well as the potential next opponent for Wardley or Dubois.
Jordan, familiar to TalkSport listeners but brought in by DAZN on Friday, is always articulate but can be aggravating to athletes. He certainly tried to bring some needle to this weigh-in, but neither WBO heavyweight champion Wardley nor Dubois felt much of a prick here, as they tipped the scales then faced off ahead of Saturday’s showdown in Manchester.
Dubois (251.7lb / 114.1kg) barely answered Jordan’s questions, instead speaking in brief mission statements as he tends to do. Wardley (242.2lb / 109.8kg) entertained Jordan’s queries but stayed calm, maintaining his composed demeanour from the rest of fight week.
The champion (20-0-1, 19 KOs) even encouraged the crowd’s shouts in support of Dubois (22-3, 21 KOs), and there were many of them, although there were cheers for Wardley as well.
Neither fighter is local to Manchester, with Wardley, 31, representing Ipswich and Dubois, 28, fighting out of London. Regardless, the split of Friday’s support will be as irrelevant on Saturday as the votes that were shown at the weigh-in; when Jordan put it to Dubois that the online polls leant towards a Wardley win, “Dynamite” was unfazed.
There was a whisper in his ear from a team member, though, which made this writer think of a comment by Wardley at Thursday’s press conference: “You let other people talk to you and tell you what it should be like.”
As mentioned above, Wardley has appeared calm this week, and – speaking on the BBC’s 5 Live Boxing Podcast – he told Indy Sport columnist Steve Bunce that he is very intentional with how he expends his energy. Then you have Dubois, who has twice ended interviews prematurely this week; one could argue that this is his attempt to save energy, but carrying tension into and out of those media duties is not necessarily a great sign.
Similarly, it seemed on Friday that Wardley was doing his best to enjoy the occasion, while Dubois just wanted to fast-forward to the fight. Dubois has said as much throughout the week, and that is understandable, but there is a sense that Wardley has won the little pre-fight battles.
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Will those battles influence the outcome of what is expected to be a war on Saturday?
Maybe not, or maybe only to a small degree. This is still close to a 50-50 fight, but every per cent counts.
Still, what of Itauma, and the relevance – if any – of his mention by Jordan? The young phenom is a teammate of Wardley, who has been coy about the prospect of facing the 21-year-old, but there is no doubt that Itauma is edging closer to the heavyweight elite.
Actually, he might be a likelier opponent for the loser of Saturday’s clash at Co-op Live, rather than the winner.
But to focus on Itauma is to rob yourself of the full enjoyment of Wardley vs Dubois, an all-British bout for a world heavyweight title – contested between genuine knockout artists. This very specific combination of factors makes this fight truly tantalising. So, don’t look beyond it, and definitely don’t blink.
