Key events
“A real Rocky moment for Zak Chelli,” reckons Carl Frampton. It certainly was – the full-time supply teacher/boxer will be the talk of his school on Monday morning.
Chelli defeats Morrell by 10th-round knockout!
Wow! We’ve had a stunning stoppage victory already in Manchester – and it isn’t the main event. Fulham’s Zak Chelli, a supply teacher by trade, has produced a sensational upset to defeat the Cuban former world champion David Morrell.
That is a result few saw coming. Morrell was winning the light-heavyweight contest after eight rounds but Chelli rocked him with a huge right hand in round nine. Chelli was all over him but Morrell saw it through to the bell – only to have the underdog leap into action at the start of the final round and bludgeon the favourite to defeat in the corner. Remarkable.
Donald McRae
The Co-op Live arena is right next door to the Etihad Stadium. I walked past Manchester City’s home ground, with the crowd roaring in the final few minutes of their game against Brentford, and it felt a relief that the boxing tonight is inside. It’s pretty cold in Manchester this evening but that didn’t stop a few of the City security guards jumping around in glee when a very late goal made it 3-0. But attention is now firmly back on the boxing and the Co-op already feels crammed with a sold-out crowd.
It’s the least that Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois deserve for a fight that could be one of the most explosive and compelling heavyweight contests of the year. There is also a decent undercard and the celebs are drifting in slowly. Luke Littler has arrived but I was more interested to see Moses Itauma at ringside. I interviewed him a couple of months ago in Manchester. It was initially a bit of a challenge to get him to open up but, eventually, we got somewhere.
I think Itauma is the most interesting heavyweight at the moment – just as I think this fight between Wardley and Dubois is far more intriguing than the Fury v Joshua extravaganza later this year. That overblown scrap is about six or seven years too late. Tonight should be a tad more timely – and Itauma is backing his gym-mate, Wardley, to stop Dubois. We shall see …
Preview time: Donald McRae has set the scene as only he can. The undercard is under way but I encourage you to give this a read before the main event. Don will be providing us updates from ringside in Manchester.
Daniel Dubois and Fabio Wardley are very different characters but, in the ring, they share a knockout ratio of 95% in the combined 42 fights they have won. The unbeaten Wardley has knocked out 19 opponents in his 20 victories while Dubois has stopped 21 of 22 vanquished rivals. It’s an impressive statistic which belies the vulnerability at the heart of each man.
Wardley, the WBO world heavyweight champion, comes from a white-collar boxing background with minimal experience as an amateur. The only blemish on his record is a draw in March 2024 with the Olympic medallist Frazer Clarke – whom he then knocked out with shocking brutality in the first round seven months later.
Preamble
This blockbuster all-British heavyweight showdown is taglined “Don’t Blink” – and not because the promoter Frank Warren fears viewers might start to nod off when their eyelids droop. Rather the message is that Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois, who have 40 knockouts in their combined 42 professional wins, both have the power to demolish one another at any moment.
For all their obvious similarities as 6ft 5in punchers with leaky defences, there are striking differences too. Ipswich’s Wardley, the WBO champ after the belt was stripped from Oleksandr Usyk, is boxing’s latest Cinderella story. A former recruitment specialist who turned pro with zero official amateur fights, Wardley’s iron will, chin and gift for self-improvement have taken him to an unbeaten 20-0-1 (19 KOs) record and to unforeseen heights.
Dubois’ amateur career was short but highly promising and he, unlike Wardley, can look a superbly balanced boxer with a dynamite jab to complement his thunderous right hand. Just ask Anthony Joshua about both. Yet the Londoner’s mentality and versatility have been questioned in the losses to Joe Joyce and Usyk (twice) that blemish his 22-3 (21 KOs) record.
Those defeats came against excellent amateurs, however – and in Usyk’s case an all-time great pro. He’s never lost to a fighter as awkward but rudimentary as Wardley. Fabio, of course, has never lost at all.
It’s a delicious setup for what should be a barnburner in Manchester’s catchily titled Co-op Live arena. We’re expecting the first bell between 10.30pm and 11pm (BST), though likely closer to the latter. Do stay with us!
