'TYSON FURY WILL FIGHT DUBOIS...' - GARETH A DAVIES REACTS TO DUBOIS STOPPING WARDLEY IN 2 ROUNDS

Joe Pugh (0:00)

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Gareth A. Davies (0:04)

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We'll see about that.

Joe Pugh (0:52)

This is Joe Pugh for iFL TV.

It's 10 past 7 on a Sunday night, and I've been chasing you all day, to be quite honest, mate. You've been in hiding after a big fight night, Gareth.

Gareth A. Davies (1:07)

Very exhausting last night, and you know, I think on these occasions, you know, obviously we're all working very hard. It's always a late finish. I mean, it's the latest sport to finish in the evening, isn't it? I mean, think how late it's going to be in Cardiff. We'll be wandering around the streets of Cardiff at four in the morning on December the 11th. I hope you're going to be there.

Look, when you see a performance of the likes of Daniel Dubois last night, when we know it's going to be exciting, we know that Fabio Wardley is going to bring it as well. And it's a heavyweight world title on the line. You've got 18,000 people in the amazing arena. That's the O2 arena.

Amazing place that it is. You know, Joshua's fought five times there, Dillian White five times, Derek Chisora three or four times, David Haye fought there, Froch and Kesler too was there with Predator. Amir Khan was one of the first to fight there. I think it was a Commonwealth lightweight title at the time from memory, but it's an incredible atmosphere in there. And it sucks the adrenaline out of you. It was a really exciting end to the night. We didn't get a series of thrilling fights last night. It slowed down with the 12 rounds, probably wrong decision, I think, for Doherty and young Michael Gomez Jr. I thought Gomez Jr. won that seven rounds to five, but it was still a compelling fight. And Jalilov, Bakadir Jalilov against Solomon Dakers was a 10 round one-sided beat, until the 10th round when Solomon came alive.

So it was a slow burn up to the main event, wasn't it? And then suddenly Fabio came in. I don't think he looked very confident when he came in. And then Daniel comes in, almost running to the ring, punching his gloves together, as if to say, I'm kicking off round 12 now from where I left off the last time. And then bing bang boom, it was done. You know, he struck early, he hurt Fabio Wardley, he didn't let him off the leash.

Joe Pugh (3:15)

Yeah, I think it was 17 seconds, that first kind of knockdown, we call it a knockdown, it was more of a touchdown. But from then on, it was one way traffic, wasn't it Gareth? And we haven't got too long, so I'm going to just go straight into that first round. Could it have been stopped in the last 20 seconds of the first round?

Gareth A. Davies (3:38)

Because it's Fabio, and because of what he's done before against Justice Hoonay, against Fraser Clarke, against Joseph Parker, no, I don't think so. I think there would have been a lot of controversy if it had been stopped in the first round, it was stopped at the right time in the second. But from my ringside seat, Fabio's legs had gone in that first round. I mean, he still didn't really go down, did he? It's incredible. Even though it was a 10-8 round.

He's always dangerous as a wounded animal, isn't he? And you can't write him off. But what Daniel DuBois did differently this time, so what we've seen before, he was powerful, precise.

He had poise and he had patience. Even though it was only, you know, two short rounds, he was very patient to avoid those big, looping right hands that were coming back and anything else that Fabio could find away a little bit of the door, ajar. That's why it was such a brilliant, complete performance. There was one punch that landed clean on Daniel, that's what I can remember at the time.

But it was the patience as well, even though he knew he had him incredibly hurt and close to being finished, he was wary of not getting knocked down himself in this rematch, because then it would have just come down to who landed first. It's heavyweight boxing. They're 18 stone men with massive power. And, you know, my takeaway from it is Dubois really learned. He's the number one heavyweight in the world now for me, the most dangerous heavyweight in the world right now. It was great to see Philip Hergivich there. He was not intimidated at all. He brought a great presence, I thought, to the event as well. Fraser Clarke asking for a trilogy with Fabio Wardley afterwards. My take away from Fabio is that he probably came back too soon as well. And his confidence will have been dented in some way by that first fight. And Dubois just didn't let him off the hook.