“HE’S LOST IT!” Fabio Wardley EXPLODES After Daniel Dubois Press Conference PUSH

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]from the Co-op Live in Manchester on May the 9th.

[00:00:04]A compelling, explosive clash for the WBO heavyweight championship.

[00:00:32]They are long days and there was a lot going on. There's a lot of talking, a lot of questions, a lot of rinse and repeat. But I don't mean it's your job at the end of the day. Just do your job and crack on. Like there's no point huffing and puffing about it. Just get on with it. Um and normally you're in a very privileged position.

[00:00:47]You can name pretty much 95% of of boxing would love to be in the position they're in and love to have a camera in the face and be able to talk about their fight because there's only a small percentage of them that actually get the attention and whatever else. You have to kind of look at it from that lens, that perspective as well. Although it can be a drag, long days and whatever else, you have to be appreciative.

[00:01:17]Look at that. Just look at that. A world heavyweight title fight is days away.

[00:01:22]Two of Britain's biggest knockout artists are standing face-to-face in front of the cameras and one of them decides to throw a shove. Not a punch, not a war of words, a shove like something you would see in a school corridor. That right there is Daniel Dubois, a man who has been called dynamite his whole career, showing everyone watching exactly where his head is at and it is not in a good place.

[00:01:50]>> [music] [music] >> And then there's Fabio Wardley. Watch his face. That is not panic. That is not fear. That is a man who is absolutely furious, but in control. He is not swinging back. He is not charging across the room. He is standing his ground and making sure the whole world knows exactly what just happened. Because here's the thing about Wardley. He has trained himself to stay composed when the fight is not going his way. And that composure right there in that split-second after a shove, that might just be the most important moment of this entire fight week. 22 wins in 25 fights, 21 by knockout. From here in London, former amateur standout and former heavyweight champion of the world, Daniel Dubois, the dynamite man.

[00:03:03]And the real-life Rocky storybook.

[00:03:06]Unbeaten in 21 with 19 knockouts. From Ipswich, the WBO heavyweight champion of the world, Fabio Wardley. That sounds good. So how did we get here? How did two men who once shared a gym through punches at each other as training partners and respected each other enough to say so publicly end up at a press conference where one of them is physically pushing the other. Let's go all the way back to where this started.

[00:03:54]Fight. Dubois has been boxing since he was 10 years old. By the time he was a teenager, he was already being fast-tracked through the British amateur system. He turned professional in 2017 and started making noise almost immediately. The nickname dynamite was not given to him for no reason. This man has a right hand that has ended fights in the first round. He has stopped opponents cold. He is one of the most naturally gifted punches British boxing has produced in a generation. We sparred with Daniel in the past.

[00:04:24]How was that?

[00:04:25]Painful.

[00:04:27]>> [laughter] >> I sparred with Daniel a lot in the very, very, very early stages of me turning professional. I'd I'd barely been professional a year, I think. And I went down I used to go down to the old Peacock gym when he was under Martin Bowers a lot. Um and sparred with him then. And obviously, he was way, way, way, way, way ahead of me in terms of levels and still big, strong and I had some great attributes and >> [music] >> and I didn't and I wasn't those things and I was learning and I was figuring things out. So, yeah, them sessions were quite um quite painful.

[00:05:02]Um and I I took a lot of kind of took a lot of shots, took a lot of took a lot of hits and was taking things kind of very head-on. Didn't wasn't really sure on how to ride a shot or anything. I was just kind of taking them.

[00:05:15]Um so, yeah, and a lot of those spars I've got no I've got no qualms in saying I'm holding my hands up like he got the better of me, but that was 8 years ago and Fabio Wardley, on the other hand, came from a completely different path. He did not have an extensive amateur career. He laced up a pair of gloves relatively late and learned the sport from scratch as a professional. And during those early days, he ended up in the gym with Daniel Dubois. In a round table interview ahead of this fight, Wardley admitted something that took real honesty that Dubois, quote punched him up in those early sparring sessions. He did not try to hide it. He did not try to rewrite history. He said it plainly, and Dubois confirmed it, too. He said that he was dominating Wardley in those sessions. But, and this is the part that matters, he also acknowledged that Wardley has changed significantly since those days. "He's come on so much," Dubois admitted. That one sentence tells you everything. Both men know this is not the same Wardley that Dubois had in the gym all those years ago. The question everyone is asking is whether Dubois has evolved just as much, or whether his demons are still running alongside him. What do you make of Fabio as a champion?

[00:06:26]>> [music] >> Much respect to him. He's faced every opponent that's been put in front of him, and has some great wins. But, it's you know, again, he's always got to go, and I'm going to be the man to do it.

[00:06:36]And yeah, it's just it's just um great to have a live live dog in front of you. There's almost no excuse, right? Like, if you win, there is no [music] he was old, he was damaged, Yeah. he's this, he's that. He is right now at the peak of his powers, as well.

[00:06:53]>> Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so am I. So am I. I'm getting stronger, as well.

[00:06:58]Um building up, you know, building up for this fight. I'm going to be you know, I'm just going to make sure I'm ready to fight, and that's it. Because the resume Dubois brings to this fight is extraordinary. In September 2024, he did something few people predicted. He went to Wembley Stadium, 96,000 fans packed inside, to defend his IBF heavyweight title against Anthony Joshua. And he did not just win, he destroyed him. He knocked Joshua down four times before ending the fight in the fifth round with a vicious right hand to the chin. At that moment, Daniel Dubois looked like the most dangerous heavyweight on the planet. He looked unstoppable. It was great night, you know, it's everything I could have wanted to win that, and win it in the way I've done.

[00:07:43]You know, it still hasn't really sunk in yet for me, but it's a great step in the right direction and yeah, I'm still world champion.

[00:07:51]Your trainer, Don Charles, told us yesterday when he looked across the ring, he thought AJ was beaten before the first bell. Did you feel the same? I wasn't looking at like like that to be honest. I was just yeah, I was in the ring with him, so I was just getting myself up, pumped up really. Got that full belief in me, my team had full belief in me, my dad, my team, so yeah, we just we came out there all business. We weren't taking no prisoners that night. He had knocked out the man who had knocked out the man who had beaten the man who everyone feared. The boxing world was paying attention. Dubois was on top of the world. His trainer, Don Charles, was by his side. His confidence was at an all-time high. Everything was pointing toward him challenging Oleksandr Usyk.

[00:08:39]The future looked bright, and then things got complicated. You must have some clue because you can't fluke every time, Fabio. It's getting ridiculous now. Yeah, I don't know. That's the question, is it? I think that's the question for everyone else. How many times am I going to do it before it stops being a fluke and like it's just what I do. Um Yeah, what a wild night. Um but everything me and the team believes, we knew we could do it. We knew we had what it takes to win. So it is a surprise, but at the same time it's not. Meanwhile, Fabio Wardley was writing his own remarkable chapter. In October 2025, he stepped into the O2 Arena in London as the underdog against former world champion Joseph Parker. He was getting outboxed for much of the fight. His corner was worried. And then in round 10, something clicked. He hurt Parker. And in round 11, he unleashed a ferocious combination, hook after hook, that left Parker stranded on the ropes with no answer. The referee stepped in.

[00:09:33]Fabio Wardley was the new WBO interim heavyweight champion of the world. It was one of the great British heavyweight stories of the last decade. A man who started boxing late, who had been doubted at every level, who people said had a suspect chin. That man had just stopped a former world champion and earned himself a legitimate world title shot. When Usyk vacated the belt, Wardley was upgraded to full WBO champion. He had gone from white-collar boxer to world heavyweight champion. And now he had to defend that belt against a man called Dynamite.

[00:10:06]One way or another, if there's time left on the clock, I'm taking you out of that fight. Like you're not making it to the final bell. And I know I know a lot has been made of of the of the back and forth with with Don and and Daniel and the moving trainers. And honestly, for me, like one trainer, two trainers, no trainers, I couldn't give a [ __ ] It means nothing to me. He's not going to get in the ring and help him. All it's going to be the bell's going to go. It's going to be me and Daniel, and I'm going to be staring in his face, throwing bombs at him, and we're going to see if he can weather the storm, which look, if we're looking at proven records, it it proves that when things get dicey, he's not really up for it. He's not really game for it. So, we're going to really see on the night who's who's really got what it takes to come through and I've got what it takes, mate. You're going to see on the night.

[00:11:02]I've got what it takes, boy. We're going to find out. We're going to find out if he's really got what it takes.

[00:11:07]Daniel, what happened? The first press conference held at Dutch Hall, a converted 16th century church in London, set the tone immediately. Wardley wasted no time. He started attacking Dubois where he is most vulnerable, his mental toughness. He pointed out that in Dubois's three professional losses, once against Joe Joyce and twice against Oleksandr Usyk, there were moments where people accused Dubois of not wanting it badly enough, of backing out, of going down when perhaps he did not have to.

[00:11:36]Wardley said plainly that he knows it is in him to capitulate. New challenges now where I'm in my career. I need the big names and the big fights and you know I'm going to be fully up for this more than I've ever been before.

[00:11:49]Um yeah, this is excites me. No warm-up fight needed straight into battle. No, no. This all experiences I've had in the past have prepared me well for this moment. Dubois gave a typically brief response. He is not a man of many words.

[00:12:05]He said he would be the first man to take Wardley's unbeaten record at heavyweight. Victory by knockout by any means necessary, but victory. That was it. Short, sharp, and then came the face-off. And then came the fist bump refusal. Wardley extended his fist after they locked eyes and Dubois simply shook his head. No. That small moment traveled all the way around the boxing internet within hours.

[00:12:34]>> [music] >> People had opinions. Some said Dubois was being disrespectful. Others said he was just locked in, focused, not interested in pleasantries. But Wardley's team saw something different.

[00:12:56]They saw a man who was already rattled, a man who could be wound up mentally before a single punch was thrown in anger. And so Wardley kept pushing. He kept throwing comments out one after another to see what would stick. And then came the one that stuck like glue.

[00:13:11]If Daniel Dubois wasn't a boxer, I think [music] he might just be like a bin man or something like that.

[00:13:18]>> You know, really it's just yeah, it's disrespect, you know. So we'll address that in the ring. You know, I'm especially me what I've done and everything. is Yeah, he knows Yeah, anyway. We we got answer for that.

[00:13:31]Of course I'm above him and on every sense, skill wise, you know, pedigree and everything like that, but yeah, it's time to shut him down in the ring. I'm a bin man and I've just got to take out the trash on it and on him. The bin man comment, Wardley, in an interview with Queensberry Promotions, said that if it were not for boxing, Dubois might be working as a bin man. He insisted it was not an insult. He said he did not mean it as a slight on the profession. I didn't say anything negative. I didn't say it was a bad job or anything like that. I just said bin man, and Wardley knew exactly what he was doing. He framed any future aggression from Dubois as fake, as something that had been manufactured by advisers trying to make Dubois seem more fired up. "If anything changes now," Wardley said, "I think it would be inauthentic. I think someone would have been in his ear telling him he needs to bite back. That is a masterclass in mind games." Whatever Dubois does next, Wardley has already labeled it as artificial. I think that's an insult to the bin man. Right, for him to refer to um I mean, it's something is quite condescending. And I don't think I like Fabio, but I don't think you've you you feel suddenly privileged cuz what, you're a a world champion and you're uh talking that way. No.

[00:14:47]Retract He should retract that statement cuz bang out of order. Then came the final press conference, and that is where everything boiled over. Dubois' trainer, Don Charles, had been trying to keep things calm. He told the media it was all just talk, just noise, that Dubois was focused and ready. But the moment those two men stood up and walked toward each other for the face-off, you could feel that something was different. The tension was not manufactured. It was real. And then Dubois shoved Wardley.

[00:15:15]Not a tap, a push. Deliberate, forceful, and, in many people's eyes, completely unnecessary. It depends what Daniel what Daniel kind of shows up and what voices have been in his ear in terms of the training corner and what they say to him and >> [music] >> if they tell him to stay away from me early on, and I think if anything that maybe reveals their hand a bit that they're a bit shy in the sense of wanting to compete with me level [music] on in them early stages and maybe they think it's better for him to kind of box and stay away from me in that sense. And I don't even [music] And then I think that's bad advice. I don't think that's playing to his benefits, playing to his skills. No matter how the fight goes, at some point you will bring him into the trenches.

[00:15:54]What happens when you do do that? I think we all know what happens there. I think I'll I'll I'll run him over. Like in the trenches, in in the in the deep waters of it, and that's where that's where I'm at my best. That's where I compete the best. That's where that's where I've got a clear advantage over Daniel.

[00:16:10]Um and if he wants [music] to meet me there, then best of luck to him, but I don't think he will. Wardley did not hold back in his reaction. The man who had been so measured and calculated all week completely erupted. He made it known in no uncertain terms that this was not boxing talk anymore. This was a line being crossed. He called [music] Dubois an idiot. He said the shove proved what he had been saying all along, that Dubois loses his composure when things heat up, that when the pressure rises, he does not respond with logic. He professionals were calling it reckless. Some said it showed cracks under pressure. Others said it showed that Wardley's strategy had worked, that the psychological warfare had done its job. The narrative heading into fight night had shifted completely. Instead of talking about Dubois's power and his momentum after the Joshua knockout, people were now asking whether he had already lost the mental war. Is there a sudden stoppage?

[00:17:03]Sorry? Is there a sudden stoppage?

[00:17:05][music] Yeah, 100%. Yeah, 100%. Look, whether it goes in the first or goes in the 12th, but one way or another, he's going, he's getting out of there.

[00:17:12]Wardley, moments after the chaos, spoke to cameras with an unsettling level of calm. He said that he had a clear advantage over Dubois if the fight went into the later rounds. He predicted a knockout, not as a hope, but as a certainty. He pointed to his finishing record, to his power, to his ability to absorb punishment and keep coming forward. He told anyone watching not to blink because in his fight history, everything can change in a single moment. One punch, one exchange, and it is over.

[00:17:50]>> [music] [music] >> Two British heavyweights, one world title on the line, a friendship that started in a gym and turned into one of the most heated rivalries British boxing has seen in years. The old sparring partner has become the enemy. The man who once punched Wardley up is now the man Wardley says will crumble under pressure. And after everything that happened this week, the fist bump refusal, the bin man comment, the shove, the eruption, this fight has become about far more than the WBO belt. It is about pride. It is about proving who has the better mind and who has the bigger heart. On May 9th at the Co-op Live in Manchester, we find out.