Tony Bellew Says Fabio Wardley’s Recovery Ability Gives Him Edge Over Daniel Dubois

Bellew points to Wardley’s comeback wins and toughness as key factors ahead of Manchester heavyweight clash

Tony Bellew is leaning toward Fabio Wardley ahead of Saturday’s heavyweight title fight with Daniel Dubois in Manchester. Bellew believes Wardley’s ability to survive hard rounds and rally late gives him more ways to win the fight.

Dubois enters the fight with the deeper record at the world level, including wins over Anthony Joshua, Filip Hrgovic, and Jarrell Miller. Wardley, though, has built a reputation around finding ways to win fights that appear to be slipping away from him, especially in comeback victories against Justis Huni and Joseph Parker.

“Fabio has been absolutely amazing. A couple of times I have thought that he was going to get beat and he has shown me up and come really good. The thing with Fabio is, he has more strings to his bow than Daniel does, so he has more ways that he can win.

“The biggest factor for me is that he has shown he can get off the floor, ride out the really tough moments in fights, and win fights that, if I am being totally honest, he doesn’t deserve to win.

“He was losing every round against Justis Huni, and he was losing against Joseph Parker. But, you see that ‘O’ that he has and that undefeated thing that he has got going – it stands him in such good stead and it gives him such confidence because you have to nail Fabio Wardley to the floor to beat him.

“He is not going to give in, no matter if everyone is against him. He has got this ‘me against the world’ attitude and you will see on Saturday night that you will have to really nail him to the floor to beat him. I am not saying that it is impossible, but I make Fabio a slight favorite,” said Tony Bellew to talkSPORT Boxing.

Wardley has repeatedly relied on late recoveries and pressure to turn fights around, and Bellew sees that mentality as a major problem for Dubois. The concern for Dubois is that Wardley has already shown he can fight through adversity against top opposition, whereas some of Dubois’ losses have come when momentum turned against him.

Share on Facebook

Post on X