Original subtitles

I thought Fabio was going into this sort of full of steam.

But ultimately, when you run into a steam train, it kind of plays out a

different way.

The first fight was the greatest heavyweight fight I've ever seen live.

I've seen hundreds.

Well, this is not a part of the game plan.

Does he want to become a two-time world champion or not?

We can actually still win this fight.

You know, you've seen blood hit the crowd.

It was becoming uncomfortable.

I'm surprised myself looking back at it.

This is a big one. WBO heavyweight title will be on the line. Fabio Wardley.

The current champion, unbeaten, against Daniel Dubois, the former IBF

heavyweight champion. Who wants his belt back?

We always talk about how a fighter learns and grows from defeats. He's had

those two defeats against Oleksandr Usyk, obviously Joe Joyce a few years

prior. And I think he's learned from that. It's Oleksandr Usyk, he's the best

in the world, one of the best ever.

Fabio's good, but he's not Usyk. So if you're Daniel, you walk into that ring

with confidence.

I beat AJ, I beat Miller, I beat Hergovich. I should be able to beat

Fabio Wardley.

Daniel Dubois is one of these thrilling fighters that, win or lose, we see

something dramatic almost every single time. This fight happened because Fabio

wanted the fight. His instruction was clear, I want the toughest challengers

that are out there, and Daniel Dubois presented himself as to be the number

one choice.

Fabio's a very, very big punching fighter, big punching heavyweight, and

if he catches you, you're in trouble.

I mean, firstly, Fabio's story is a rocky story from where he was.

He worked in an office at 22.

He'd never laced the gloves up.

Four white-collar fights, no amateur experience, and somehow getting himself

to a position even to become a world champion, it's an extraordinary story.

So going into this fight, I thought that Fabio was on that momentum.

He was the world champion. That sort of gave him a confidence-level booster as

well. So he's got connections. We wanted him to be a footballer when he was

younger.

You know, and he wears the badge on his shorts. I don't know, you sort of go in

the ring not just for yourself, but just for your town.

You know, it's a powerful thing.

I remember thinking beforehand, why is Fabio taking such a dangerous first

defense of his title? Both of them with 95% knockout ratio each.

I thought it was a very dangerous assignment for the pair.

That was the reason why I picked him as well, because it was the biggest

challenge out there, and...

That is what I like to do best, is to test myself, push myself and put myself

in there with the best around at the time. And he is or was that guy, if not

is. Normal emotions that I feel before I'm about to fight someone.

Yeah, just regular nerves and just ready to go.

I thought Fabio was going into this sort of full of steam, but ultimately when

you run into a steam train, it kind of plays out a different way.

Gosh, the worst thing you could expect to happen, happened.

And we found our man on the floor. It's like, whoa, this is not a part of the

game plan.

I remember being ringside, by the way, and that's surprising the hell out of

me. And Daniel does what Daniel always does when he gets hurt or gets knocked

down. He always looks through his corner, always looking for guidance.

And I could look at Don Charles immediately. I was looking at Don.

And I see Don saying, it's okay, just calm down.

So I was a little bit concerned.

Daniel literally sprung back up. At ringside, you sort of felt that Fabio

would be in for an early night and that Daniel Dubois wouldn't be able to take

his power.

At that point, you just think, this is going to be round one. In the next

minute, this is done.

Then and there was a perfect tell for me to say, right, I've got the power in my

hands to get rid of him at any moment in this fight.

We're in it to win it, so...

yeah we've come for a lot to get there that was nothing and

you can feel and hear

fabio's punches going through the air almost like slow motion you can almost

feel the wind of them

First and foremost, when he comes back, I ask him, how are you feeling? Because

he's the one who got hit, and he was sharp, he was aware of where he is.

Round three.

Right. How are you feeling? Good. Right. You need to work that jab, yeah?

Feint, double jab, feint, double jab, then bring the right hand, and then let

it finish.

Combination dance.

He's not being so... ..so catchy.

And that's when he just felt, is he going to fall apart?

The sword didn't even catch me flush. It just knocked me off balance a bit and

took a knee to clear my head. Daniel did the most intelligent thing to take a

knee. There is such a thing.

If he was macho, tried to ride it out.

Fabio would have probably jumped on him and concluded the fight in his favor.

When Daniel went down, I think he knew that he had to get up.

He knew that he had to grit his teeth and get him back involved in the fight.

Does he want to become a two-time world champion or not? And every Daniel there,

you can see Daniel's looking. He's afraid. For the first time, Daniel's

eyes are almost wide open. Like, whoa, this guy has not really landed clean.

He's put me down twice.

What if he does land clean?

For me, that was... It started to become the writing on the wall of... I can get

him out of here by making him nearer and quit out.

Fight, get the jab working, get into it.

That's what I needed to do.

He's got an unbelievable jab, which, as you know, heavyweights depend upon.

And he started boxing him. And when he did that, the fight turned on its head.

All through preparation for Fabio, we always have code words for every fight

that Daniel's going to have.

And the word discipline was consistent within the camp.

Discipline to spread over different sections.

And just being alert, being present.

Come on, hit it.

Shot.

Hit it.

Yes. Together.

right well let's show up start working that job double it up in and out don't

stay there and don't fall in okay you gotta keep your side here it's my duty

that's what i get paid for we can actually still win this fight take over

take charge and we had to seize that moment and take over and that's exactly

what happened

If you're thinking, hold on a minute, maybe this isn't over. Maybe, you know,

Daniel's going to get back into this.

If you're Fabio, it's easy to think, OK, this fight was going to be over in three

rounds. And Daniel said, no, no, no, no, not on my watch.

It's a world title fight. You're going to have to earn that belt. And I think

that's when both of them realize that they're going to have to go into that

well and dig deep and find something.

I think when he believes in himself, Daniel Devoy, he's so dangerous.

He's such a terrific heavyweight because if you mix the skills with the power and

you get that sense that he can do it. What happens next?

Oh, don't blink.

Yeah, there's a whole lot of adrenaline that really dulls a lot of the impact

and a lot of the what you would call pain, I guess. There's minimal times in

a ring where you feel, which sounds weird to say, but you, at least myself,

you feel pain.

Like I've had worse moments walking around the house to stepping on a plug

socket. That's more painful in a sense, in a weird way.

but there's a lot of weight behind the punch so i was quite more studying than

anything just wonder if this will come down to whose chin will hold out better

who's

back in this fight to fabio's credit he's got a good chin fabio he's a grit

gritty tough guy he took the shots but he was catching him so

yeah there was a definite momentum swing you know the fight

is definitely intense it's warming up you've lost discipline with your

lead hand right give me more faith yeah wake up okay

I think he's wanting to give me that slap for a while, you know, but he got

the chance to do it in the ring and I couldn't do nothing back.

It had to take something to make Daniel realise we're in this fight and we can

actually still win this fight.

The easiest way to summarise rounds five through to eight, so five, six, seven,

eight, is go and watch an old Rocky movie. Even maybe put the Rocky music on

because it is literally that. These guys are throwing leather at each other.

and it's non-stop. It's almost getting gruesome.

Once they start to implement a major

part of the game plan, He started to have success.

Just got into the flow, I think. Got into the flow, got into the rhythm of

the fight, and then just started taking over, taking control.

He sat down in the surround and I think he found his composure.

Fabio is unfortunate because he's got this nick above his nose where, I mean,

a kid could hit it and it would run with blood. And so he's full of blood. I

mean, the blood's pouring down his face. Fabio is hanging on. Daniel's tired as

well. Daniel's a big guy. He's breathing heavily.

That's so Fabio's body language, it was a bit negative posture and we had to

seize that moment and take over and that's exactly what happened.

I think up to this point, one of the greatest heavyweight fights we'll see at

ringside. It was thrilling, unbelievable.

You just know, you can sense it and feel it at ringside. When you're six feet

away, it shows you how real it is. It shows you how raw it is.

Nothing is anything without the fighters.

They are doing this. They are putting their careers, their lives, everything

on the line, under lights, just the two of them, thousands of people at

ringside. in the arenas, millions watching.

That stage of the fight, it was fighting on instinct, it was fighting on heart.

since i've been involved in this uh boxing uh being in the corner i've not

witnessed anything that brutal during the contest

like

daniel's now walking through the fire and lands in big shots

daniel's a good finisher as well it's something he doesn't get credit for but

daniel now is sensing blood like a hound he wasn't gonna let go he was on him

this utter madness what fabio wardley

has gone through daniel it's

actually like a movie you know if you fight fabio wardley you have to be

prepared to give it a hundred percent because you know that he's exactly what

he's going to bring to the table

Yeah, I always say he's got those two personalities, right? And I think

that beast only comes out when it's time to fight. He has

that ability to just switch on. If you're backstage, he's calm, he's cool,

he's collective, he's busting jokes, he's having fun, and then there's a

switch. And when that switch comes, sort of the vibration of the room just

changes. And you can even feel like a dampening of energy where he's just

consuming the entire space.

Fabio has something that you're born with, and it's that just want to

succeed. I think Fabio has heard all the doubters, right? The naysayers, you're

never going to do this, you're a white-collar boxer, no amateur

background. I think he has that built in him, that grit of, I'm going to prove

you all wrong.

There's a moment where it almost looks like he's going to fall back and

collapse. One eye's closed, he can barely see out of the other eye, the

nose is busted.

Medical team, they looked at him.

No one gets closer than the doctor, he's looking in the doctor's eyes, he's

shining his torch, he's looking at his nose and his eyes and everything.

And I'll be honest, where I was sat, everyone was kind of murmuring that I

don't think the doctor's going to let him carry on.

And the doctor waved it on and allowed the fight to continue.

It's great to know that people are enjoying the entertainment and they want

to see more of it.

Yeah, it gave me a little buzz of energy. It gave me a little surge.

And the main focus was just a couple more rounds to go.

Let's be honest here. This is the heavyweight championship of the world.

Top of the sport. This is the most prestigious moment that you can have in

heavyweight boxing. So I think both fighters should always be given the

opportunity to leave their role in the ring.

I just felt, having been around the sport a long time, it was becoming

uncomfortable. Yeah, when I look back at it, yeah, it was pretty gruesome, to be

honest.

Someone has got to take it out of Fabio's hands.

Because Fabio would still be fighting right now.

But he's still swinging, but Daniel's now seeing them. I could sense that he

was failing a bit.

You don't look at whether he should be stopped or not. No, last man standing,

that's our mentality.

You not only did him with a very good boxer, you did him with a 250-pound man

who wants to win by any means necessary.

And that's what Daniel Dubois is.

You know, you're seeing blood hit, like, the crowd.

You're just splattering into the crowd and you're like... Yeah, there was

moments where, you know, I just... Enough's enough.

I've done

this before, so I know I can make it through to the end.

So what was your game plan going into round 11?

Game plan?

There is no game plan at round 11.

You've got to give Fabio a chance.

He's the world champion.

He's never lost. I can understand how you let it go a bit longer.

Again, Fabio's story and journey to get to this point.

is unlike anyone. Like, this isn't supposed to happen.

Life here. Daniel LeBlanc, another right hand. And if he gets on Wardley now, he

will give Howard Foster surely no choice.

It was just chipping away and seeing how much the ref would let him take at that

point. In this crazy spot.

Daniel LeBlanc has won it. All over again. Lots of scoring.

Triple D and the team.

Daniel Dubois becomes the world champion for the second time. Two-time

heavyweight champion of the world. That's history.

Your name will be in history forever for now.

To sustain two knockdowns in two different rounds and then turn that

fight around, I've not been involved in any such fight.

It was just an epic battle between two warriors.

There was a moment, because his family were there, his mum was there, and he...

And he just looked at his mum and gave her a little nod, which I thought was a

beautiful moment, to be fair.

You know, when this rematch was first announced, you always hear people say

things like, OK, it's Wardley versus Dubois 2.

I've always kind of phrased it differently and almost said it's Wardley

-Dubois round 12.

The defeat for the first time in his life. He will want to get that world

title back and he will do everything in his powers to do it. I think they will

revert to what they are.

which are true, walk forward, big punching, fighting men. I think he'll

get a barn burning. I've learned what I needed to do the second time around, and

I'm going to do it. I'm going to make easier work of him.

You're going to get jeopardy, you're going to get guts and glory, but this

time around, you're going to get a worldly win.

The one go to distance.

This is not a fight that we needed to take.

This is a fight that he chose to take.

Immediately the bell goes, they're going to go straight to each other and try and

kick the and knock the out of each other immediately.

And I think we've got the opportunity to see a rematch which could live up to it,

maybe even exceed it. So make sure you tune into The Zone. If you're lucky, get

a ticket. Do not miss it.