Fabio Wardley Opens Up on Old Sparring Sessions With Daniel Dubois Ahead of Title Fight

Fabio Wardley knows that Daniel Dubois has gotten the better of him 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.

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.

"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. "[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.'"

Although Wardley, 31, is three years older than Dubois, they made their professional debuts on the exact same night — 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.

Fabio Wardley gets candid about Daniel Dubois training sessions

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.

"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’t like he was a stand-out; it was just known that he was pretty solid and could whack a bit.

"There was even cruiserweights — 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 – me taking shots and not even moving, taking it straight to the dome and that would rack my brain a bit."

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 in October, 2025, before being promoted to full champion a few months later.

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.

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