George Groves Backs Dubois to Beat Wardley Again — With One Warning

Daniel Dubois puts his WBO heavyweight belt on the line Saturday in an immediate rematch with Fabio Wardley, and former super-middleweight champion George Groves isn't buying the idea it'll be close. Groves told Sky Sports' Toe2Toe podcast that Dubois is the better boxer in almost every measurable department — faster hands, cleaner movement, and in his words, genuinely frightening power.

The context matters. Back in May, Dubois (23-3, 22 KO) was knocked down twice early — once in the first, once in the third — before clawing his way back to stop Wardley in the 11th. That makes this his first defence of a second world title reign, and it came against a man with a 95 percent finish rate who still owns just one blemish: 20-1-1, with 19 of those 20 wins by knockout.

Why Groves Sides With the Champion

Groves pushed back hard on Wardley's own reading of the first fight. The challenger has suggested he hurt Dubois and essentially let the win slip away. Groves disagrees, arguing it was closer to Dubois' fight to lose all along. He pointed to the detail that gets lost in the knockdown highlights — that Dubois was buzzed and, by Groves' telling, concussed when he figured Wardley out and took over. For Groves, that's not a lucky escape. That's a special performance.

He was blunt about the gap in pedigree, too. Wardley has no amateur background and Groves calls him a limited but effective boxer — big, strong, awkward, and dangerous because of it. The #4-ranked contender activated his rematch clause fast despite the beating he took, which tells you how convinced he is that the sequel plays out differently.

The One Thing That Could Trip Dubois Up

Here's Groves' caveat, and it's the only real path he sees to an upset. If Dubois walks in thinking he's already won — that he just has to show up because he's the superior fighter — he could come unstuck. In a division where both men can crack, mental switch-off is the one variable that flattens the talent gap.

So the pick is Dubois, comfortably, as long as his head's right. Underneath the heavyweight headliner sits a British lightweight title fight between Louie O'Doherty and Michael Gomez Jr. But the story Saturday is whether Dubois can prove May wasn't a fluke — or whether a motivated Wardley, with that knockout record, makes him do it the hard way again.