Daniel Dubois cannot afford a repeat of the pre-fight party that scandalised his loss to Oleksandr Usyk ahead of his world title bout against Fabio Wardley, his promoter Frank Warren has warned.
After succumbing to a fifth-round stoppage at the hands of Usyk in an undisputed title fight last July, a video emerged showing Dubois at a gathering hosted by his father the night before, switching the narrative from hailing the Ukrainian’s talents to questioning Dubois’ preparations.
It was suggested that this may have contributed to the Briton arriving at Wembley Stadium just 90 minutes before he was due to make his ringwalk.
And while Don Charles, Dubois’ coach who he recently realigned with, played down the pre-fight get-together at the time, Warren has assured conversations were had in the fallout of the Usyk defeat, and that there will not be another party of the sort when Dubois fights Wardley for the WBO world heavyweight championship on 9 May.
“That can’t happen again. The good thing is they’ll be in Manchester so they’ll be staying in a hotel,” promoter Frank Warren told Sky Sports.
“When he was late getting there, I was tearing my hair out, what I’ve got left. I can’t be arguing with everyone when he’s two hours away from the biggest fight ever but afterwards we had a sitdown and said what we had to say.”
Dubois, who insisted he didn’t “want to go on about” the party, is back with Charles after a brief period with trainer Tony Sims, rekindling a partnership with his coach six months after their surprise split.
The 28-year-old believes undefeated Wardley is underestimating him off the back of a high-profile loss, and is keen to get back to the top, envisaging a potential return to Wembley against Tyson Fury if he can beat the Ipswich-born bruiser.
“He’s in a good place at the moment,” Warren added.
“Leaving Don and then going back has been good for him, that he’s been elsewhere and seen he’s more comfortable with Don. There’s been a lot of stuff happening behind the scenes for that fight which has been well documented.”
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