Fabio Wardley was elevated to WBO heavyweight world champion following his win over Joseph Parker. This weekend, he makes his first defence against Daniel Dubois.
Parker was stopped in the eleventh round by Wardley after a highly-entertaining heavyweight contest that saw the Brit pick up the interim belt. When Oleksandr Usyk opted to vacate the full title, Wardley was upgraded.
The 31-year-old from Ipswich has thrown himself in at the deep end by selecting dangerous Dubois for an all-British banger that could be the division’s standout contest this year.
Parker – who was scheduled to face Dubois last year before the latter withdrew on fight week through illness – told Playbook Boxing that he was backing the challenger.
“I do fancy Dubois. There’s a few things that happened in my fight with Wardley. I feel like I really underperformed, around 50, 60% of what I could do. I reckon Wardley should’ve knocked me out early on. Listen, he won the fight, I congratulated him … but I do feel like with Dubois, the boxing background he has, there’s a bit of a difference.”
“I would say in my opinion Dubois is the bigger puncher. Fabio has some great knockouts himself, but there’s something about Dubois, just raw and aggressive.”
The Manchester main event is appropriately billed ‘Don’t Blink’, with both men boasting a 95% knockout-to-win ratio.
As for Parker, following a positive cocaine test after the Wardley fight, he said in the same interview that his team has provided everything possible to the relevant authorities in the hope of clearing his name. Should he be cleared to compete again soon, he wants the winner.