5 Live Boxing with Steve Bunce - Dubois v Wardley II - The Debrief

Episode Date: October 18, 2026

Is Daniel Dubois now the most feared man in the heavyweight division? Richie Woodhall joins Buncey to dissect Dubois’ devastating victory, what went wrong for Fabio Wardley and what’s next for both men. Plus, we hear from both fighters, promoter Frank Warren and trainer Don Charles.

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It was vicious. Daniel Dubois kept his title with a second round stoppage of Fabio Wardley in front of a capacity crowd at the O2. Heavyweight championship boxing at its very best. I'm Steve Bunce and this is Five Live Boxing. Are you not entertained? That was Daniel Dubois. That's become his catchphrase.

I know it's not his originally. It was Russell Crowe's in Gladiator or someone else in Gladiator. I appreciate that. But that's what Daniel used when the fight was finally stopped after two minutes and 21 seconds of the second round. The fight was really over after about 17, 18 seconds of the first round when Daniel threw a perfect counter as Fabio Wardley was throwing a right hand,

Fabio Wardley's right knee touchdown. He was trapped in the corner above Don Charles the trainer's head, and really that's when the fight finished. If I sound a little bit breathless, that's because I am because it was breathless. Now I'm joined by someone that is never breathless. I've seen him run half marathons with live cows on his back.

He doesn't care. He's got the most amazing engine. that's Ritchie Woodrow. I'm not quite sure where to start. I'm not quite sure what we've witnessed. I just thought it caught me a bit by surprise, like it did Fabio. It was brutal in its own way,

even though only lasted whatever, five minutes and 21 seconds. Where do we start? Daniel Dubois is still the WBO heavyweight champion in the world. Fabio Wardley has lost back-to-back fights by stoppage. He looked as stunned and confused. There's lots of other people inside DO2.

I think we expected a fast start we said that, didn't we? It's going to start quicker. We also said it's not going to go the distance. I just didn't expect, I didn't expect Daniel to start like that, Steve. I think that's where we're all surprised. That's the main difference from the first fight.

The main difference from Daniel's first rounds. Exactly. The first round was unbelievable. And looking back now, when the ring walks were going on, we stood up and actually, you know, where we're actually sitting. We stood up, we turned around,

and there's that stage behind us, and everyone was looking at this stage, and they got all the fireworks were going off. And I watched Fabio walk up and down that stage as if he was acknowledging all the crowd, you know, and really taking it in. Then he walked into the ring. He looked, he looked great, he looked calm.

Very focused. Yeah, you look very focused. Thinking about now, when I watch Daniel, he literally comes out of the sort of tunnel area. On to that stage. For one second. Literally walks across it as if let me just get to the ring. It reminded me of an old Mike Tyson that used to walk to the ring,

black shorts, black boots, head down, just get into the ring. I just want to fight. And that's not unintentionally. And that's what he did, Daniel DeBarre. He walks straight across the stage. Do you remember I said? When Stacey Copeland was presented, when Stacey said to me, What do you think, Bansy, look at him.

Did a fantastic job. She was on top form tonight. And it's good because often, if it's a long night, she has not a kit, but relaxes a little bit. But tonight she was definitely without a doubt on absolute top form. But I said when she... She's still got a good left, don't you know you want to watch it. I know, that's why I'm over here in the corner.

When, at that point, when Daniel passed us, if you look, and I said it at the time, He was focused on something six foot in front. And from the moment he left the tunnel and walked onto the stage and walked straight down the ramp and walked past and got in the ring, he did not take his eyes off that imaginary thing that he was looking at, Rich. Just like Tyson. No looking at the crowd, no acknowledging people in the crowd,

no kissing baby's heads. He was looking at something that was six feet in front of him. Incredible. So looking back, he was sort of switched on and focused right from the word go. And we said that last time, and in previous contests, he can be a bit vulnerable because he's not quite switched on early on in the contest and he's been caught with shots. This time, there was none of that.

He was well switched on. And when that bell went, I think I described it after the contest itself, that he fought like an hungry challenger. Yeah. He fought like someone who, you know, he finally got his shot. And it's not like a champion.

Not like a champion. Not like a champion. A man. Mark. Yeah. You like that, don't you? Yeah, the Marvin Haggard. Absolutely.

He fought like a young lion mate that wanted the meat that hadn't been fed for probably three weeks. He was so vicious. Come out with a lot of intent in them shots. Yeah, I was really impressed with his attitude. Right from the word go, it wasn't. He just wanted that bell to go. And when he come out, man. And the right hand, the right hand that forced his knee to touch down after 17, 18 seconds or whatever,

that catches any heavyweight on the chin in any. area. I'm not saying they're gone, they're never going to get up, but it drops them. It drops them without a shadow of a down, not even close. Backs him into the corner and then delivers this right hand. And we did say in the build-up to the contest that it could be a classic case of who lands that

first big shot. It was certainly Daniel, but, you know, the first fight spoilt us a little bit with Fabio in there. He's got amazing powers of recovery Fabio Wardley. But he looked like he had, he didn't

recover from that punch. When Steve Gray's, the Steve great referee says box on, there's two minutes and 33 seconds left on the clock. Okay, I think he struggles throughout the rest of that round where he gets her, several

times rich when, because he doesn't know enough to hold because of his lack of his lack of amateur experience and lack of professional experience, right? Because he doesn't know enough to hold. There were times when he was actually turning away, taking full-blooded shot, turning away. He gets through the first round

just by the skin of his teeth. And in fact, Ben Davison is up at the end of the first round when Daniels managed to trap Fabio. Ben Davison is in Fabio's corner. He's up with the towel on the ring apron. And so he goes back to the corner. They work on him.

And when he stands up, Richard, the moment he stands up, he does a little stagger. A little stagger. And I keep, you and I keep talking, waiting for Ronald to come in, just delaying Ronald a little bit, just to note that before.

Before the bell sounds, his legs aren't steady. And yet he still gets through two minutes and 21 seconds of that, the second round before the towel and the referee going at the same time. That's all from that first punch days. Absolutely, which. You know, and he's had a minute's rest. He hadn't recovered. And it just reminded me then that was like, I mean,

we're only into the second round, and yet that was like the 11th. Yeah, he looked like the 11th round of the last one without the blood. Because he was, you know what I mean? Steve, and like I say, an incredibly tough hard man, but I think we were spoilt in that first fight with how much he actually took and got through it. This time, that one big right hand, he never recovered.

Now, as you'd imagine, it was a little bit chaotic in there. There was an absolute capacity crowd, nearly 20,000 people. A lot of people were shocked, a little people were surprised, a lot of people were celebrating, obviously. There was bedlam at ringside, and, well, let's put it this way. It was a bit chaotic at ringside. We will hear from Frank Warren,

who our very own Wally Stevens, went and did interview, and we will hear from Don Charles a little bit later. But I want to try and give you a sense of what it was like and the chaos there and the fight itself, just how much it shocked people, and it was a shocking ending,

not as brutal and savage as the first fight, but it was still a shocking ending. So we're going to hear from, I think we're going to hear from Daniel Dubois first, and maybe a little bit of fantastic, Fabio Wardley. In the middle of that, Desones and a Wallhouse went in to try

and do some justice to what was a very chaotic scene. Shout out to my dad. Shout out to the whole team for the effort, man. Shret Fabio's a great warrior coming in for the second time, but it was my time in my era after we'll run right now.

Well, in that first fight, it took Fabio 16 seconds to knock you down. You took 17 seconds to get one back in this fight. Yeah, I said, I had my intentions, bad intentions from the beginning. And God's victory tonight.

And we done well. Talk to me about your mentality going into this one. There seems to be a different dynamic maybe for you coming into this rematch because you were going to the first one off the back of the Noosick loss. But you were the champion going into this. Did that make a difference for you, do you feel? Yeah, our back was against the war the first time. This time we just had to go out there and show that we mean business.

and that's what we did tonight. Daniel, who would you like to be in with next? Whoever's next in line, really. I'm the champion now, and I want to get some big fights in now. This stage in my career, big money, big fights. You know what, you're the man, Frank. Yeah? He is the man.

I'm just going to see if I can grab a word. Don't go anywhere. Grab a word with Fabio. Fabio commiserations. I mean, Daniel didn't waste any time in that fight. He did what you did to him in the first. fight taught me three emotions. Yeah, look, it's never fun to lose, but it is what it is.

The game is the game. I've always thrown myself in with the best competitors out there, with the best in the business, the toughest, the biggest, hardest, meanest guys around. So, look, there's no shame in the loss when you're putting yourself in and testing yourself against the best. But, look, Daniel's a testament to coming up short and coming again, and I'll be looking to do it as that same thing. 17 seconds, it took him.

16 seconds for you in that first fight to knock Daniel down. How much did that rock you did he feel tonight? Yeah, look, come away and you play with the game plan, you're trying to adjust some things, and they just didn't work for me tonight. I wasn't clicking in the same way, and that's only down to me and myself, and then it's only a nod, and it's only a credit to Daniel of how well he's prepared. There's not more much to do with that. Boxing is a game of fine margins.

It can be done and over in a round or two, or we can go into a big old wall like it was last time, but, look, it was what it was. It didn't touch down or things didn't go. I didn't get sparked out like that, so there's a little bit of pride to be taken. in there. We have to ask the question because it was spoken about a lot in the buildup of this was sort of five and a half months since that first fight. Do you feel it was maybe a little bit too soon for you? No, not on the slightest. Not at all. Look, I just came in. I didn't, I didn't execute the game plan properly tonight. That was all. I hold my hands up to that.

It's entirely down to me. When I step through the ropes, it's only myself. It's only me and me bounce around in the ring and doing everything. There's no blame to be passed around. win it's all me as well. So look, we'll go back to the drawing board as a team. There's no shame we're losing to a great competitor like Daniel. He's a testament himself to losing, coming back, and I'll be looking to do this, that same thing. He looks stundum confused, not from the punches,

not like a concussion. He just looks stundum confused. I don't think he could quite believe what's happened, Steve, as a lot of people around the ringside couldn't either. We certainly couldn't. And yet, we did say we didn't expect it to go the distance and we expected them to start quick. but we just didn't expect Daniel

to start that quick and land that big, big shot. So yes, he was very deflated, was Fabio. And I think Steve, it's going to be a long, hard road for him to come back. I think mentally, more than physically, to be honest. And that's different than after the first fight. Because he has a line after the first fight where he says, my heart didn't let me down, my body let me down, and I can live with that.

Whereas tonight, tonight really, I know that he could argue the same thing, and he did try and suggest as a bit of a sort of bit of silver lining somewhere off there in the distant horizon. He did try and suggest, well, at least there wasn't knocked out cold.

And he would have continued taking punches. At the end came as Ben Davidson once again climbed up, Ben Davidson who was criticised after the first fight, and I thought rather unfairly for not stopping the fight earlier. Ben Davidson climbs up, and he throws the towel in as Steve Gray, the referee was about to stop it. We weren't going to get a lot more.

And I watched some of those last shots from that last cluster of punches. There's a sickening right uppercut. Then Daniel adjust his feats and throws a left hook and comes in behind the guard that Fabio was stuck up. A wall of leather, really, to try and avoid getting hurt. So I'm pleased it was stopped. There's no debate or doubt about that being an early stoppage yesterday.

Let's just get that straight, Richard. No debate whatsoever. That was a good stoppage, the right decision. And even Ben Davidson, you know, had the towel as well. That was going to go in. But yeah, listen, the referee got it absolutely spot on. Yeah, I think you've got to give great credit to Daniel.

What a finish that was. You know, and I think... And he's learning, you know what, Steve, he's getting more seasoned and more mature as a fighter. He's learning as he's going along. And I think he sensed right from that first right hand that he'd got the measure of him. And that he was weakening.

And for him to do that, that's experience, you see. It's not a young Daniel DeBarre anymore and inexperienced Daniel DeBarre. It was 201, 22, forever it seemed. Exactly. And we weren't quite sure how he'd respond and how he'd react. But now, you know, he's had that great win against AJ. He's had the Ussic fights.

He's had the loss against Joe Joyce. You know, and it's all experienced. And so he's a different fighter now. You can't buy those rounds. You can't buy those hard ways. And I think he sensed it. And the way he finished him off in the second, And the way he found the room, he didn't launch the attack in terms of,

he didn't lunge in, should I say. Didn't over commit, didn't fall over his feet. All the shots were hitting the target. He's maintaining the gap at short range and still hitting the target with big punches. His punches out and we said at the end of the first round that he wasn't wasting punches. No. You know, I'm not a big believer in punch stats, but just from our naked experienced eye, It didn't seem to me that he wasted any punches.

He was almost picking them one by one by one. Anyway, afterwards, I did manage to catch up with my old friend Don Charles. Now, remember Don Charles and Daniel, they've been on and off. They've been up and down. They've, you know, Don had to slap Daniel in the first fight in about round three or four to get Daniel to focus. So I was quite intrigued to find out, well, actually, to speak to a very jubilant Don Charles about,

very jubilant Don Charles, a warning. Don Charles and I go back an awful long way So if you don't like people saying nice things about me You might want to skip through this And we'll move on to the rest of the podcast Here I am with Don Charles Don, we knew that it would be a fast start From both of them

But Daniel was just that bit quicker That's that bit more focused I saw a clip of you and him in the dressing room 25 minutes before And he was sweating as often Was it more of... Was it as simple as a bigger and longer warm-up? Yeah, because it...

It's like a racing car, if this was Formula One, you've really got to fine tune, you've got to know the athlete, how much to tune them. Don't leave the fight in the dressing rooms. There is an old saying. Don't leave the fight in the dressing room. So we tuned it finely to him to be ticking just right.

But it was so much sharper. I mean, he reads Fabio's right hand above your head after 17 or 18 seconds of the first round. He lets his right hand. and go, shows a shot, Fabio goes to throw a shot, and then Daniel whips over the point. One of the best right hands has ever thrown. Absolutely.

You can't teach that. He can't have. Instincts, instincts. And I must commend Fabio because not many would have gotten up from that right hand. I said that on commentary. I said any heavy weight in history goes down on that shot. And he's never been dropped from my recollection, Fabio, this is.

Never. No, no. It was down and remarkably got up and fought on. Yeah. And it was too dangerous. And it was stopped at the right time. I believe so. I believe so.

He'd run out of ways to survive. Absolutely. Yeah. What would you, I mean, there's lot to talk about floating around here. What would, what would you like for Daniel? Ideally, if I was given a choice, a unification with one of the champions. Any of them? Cabell, Hergovich.

Gassier, of course. Unification, that's the most natural route to go in my opinion. You said after the, after the, this is the last question of you, Don, because there's people waiting and I've jumped in the queue here. But you said after the first fight against Fabio, now no one can ever criticise Daniel, okay? So tonight it's just pure celebration. It's not with proving people wrong. Surely tonight it's just about what you and him have managed as a team. And the team, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, God is great. God is great. It's been a pleasure,

Don. Do you think we'll be doing this in 12, 15, 30 years time of you and I? I believe so. And I would like to because that's what keeps me alive. It's what keeps me alive. There you go. It's what keeps me young. Don, I said, I'm delighted for you and I'm delighted for Daniel. That was quality. Thank you, sir. And you've known me more than longer than all these people. You saw my entrance into the industry. You see my growth, yeah? And I love you, bro. And I love you too, big man. Thanks, Don. Growing businesses deal with the same problem, too many tools, too much back and forth, and not enough time. Odu helps bring it all together. It's an all-in-one business management

platform, fully integrated from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, so your team can spend less time chasing information and focus on growth. Whether you're in retail, Manufacturing or service, O-Doo gives you one place to manage your business. Visit Odo.com to book a demo. It's O'D-O-O-O-O-com. The Signal Awards just announced finalists for the best podcasts of 2026. Now it's your turn. From September 29th to October 15th, you decide your favorite shows, hosts, and more in the Listeners' Choice Awards. Visit vote.orgnet.com to see finalists in categories like most innovative audio experience.

Make your picks at vote. Dot Signal Award.com and tell a friend. Don't wait. I make Don Charles absolutely right, Richard. Just a little bit of extra warm up and just how proud he is of Daniel. And they can celebrate now.

We haven't got to defend Daniel against some of those outrageous charges that he's at the face in the past where he's been called, where he's been called by some of the big media outlets, a coward, where he's been accused of bottling it.

But on big media outlets, He doesn't have to answer those questions now. Now we have to answer the question. We have to ask the question is where does he sit in the current heavyweight bag? The current heavyweight situation, where does he sit? And I tell what, Rich? I'll tell you, Steve.

It's high, brother. It's very high indeed, you know. He's probably the number one at the moment. I think, you know, we don't know what Alexander Hussick's going to do, whether he's going to have one more, you know, but he's going to retire. You've got AJ and Tyson Fury there going to go at it. Ajit Cabell, but on current form, you've got to say

Daniel de Bois, this year, I mean, the first one was an absolute classic we know. This time it's just been a destruction job against Fabio Wardley. So on current form, you've got to put Daniel de Bois right at the very top of the tree. Because Usset last time out when we went camel riding in amongst the... Well, that's it. I mean, Usik against Faheven in Egypt. In Cairo, when we, yeah, we did. You had the biggest camel.

that I've ever seen. Thanks, Richard. You will get your fire and your coffee in the morning for that. In fact, it's in my script that every time we ever do a show and talk about heavyweight, someone has, I'll have to remind Stacey,

you have to remind people that I did ride the biggest camel in the world. Was it called Bob Marley, my camel? All the camels called Bob Marley. There was a few Bob Marley's there, actually. A few Bob Marley camels. Yeah, but yeah, so going back to Hussick in that performance, it was an awful fight,

awful performance for him, just nicks it. So you've got to say, on current form, Daniel DeBois is the number one heavyweight in the world at the moment. You know what? Something has occurred to me. Okay, we are going to talk in a moment about potential heavyweight fights going forward

and ones that Daniel could be involved in. And I was going to do that after the next interview that I did with Michael Offo, who looks after and manages and is very close to Fabio. But before we get to Michael, I think I've got to throw forward as Daniel Dubra's next opponent, Big Rico Verhoeven. Oh, pulled that one out of the back, hey?

The one thing I didn't like tonight, Steve, is there was a bit of booing in the crowd. Quite a lot of it for Daniel. Not at the end of the fight, but when he was being introduced, as an awful lot. I couldn't believe it, mate, you know. What's Daniel Dubrae ever done wrong? And you know what that is? That's certain people that have listened to certain other people, media people, who have labelled him, a quitter, labelled him,

not just a quitter, but labelled him a bottle job was the actual word. Come on. Show some respect. Show some respect. And we've got to get behind him. He's our number one heavyweight at the moment. He's world champion. And he's just putting in a fantastic display.

So I was a little bit disappointed with the booze. He certainly doesn't need that. He's a good guy, Daniel de Bois. You know, and the thing is, if you watch him, we've watched him all week, Steve. And you can tell he doesn't enjoy the press. He doesn't enjoy the way. the press conferences. It's just not his thing,

but that's Daniel, you know. He can fight the lad can, and at the end of the day, you know, he's performed on the night. That's all that matters. Anyway, we did make our way, Molly, myself,

you, Richie and Stacey, to get to Fabio's dressing room. Now, he didn't do an interview with his own in the dress room. He did that short one in the ring with Anna. And we asked, and understandably, and I don't hold any great,

He wasn't doing interviews. That's not a problem. I did speak to Michael, Michael Offo, who's manager and also his friend. And, well, you can hear the emotion in Michael's voice here. We said from the start this fight, so you're going to go, you know, up to six rounds. He went out there and Daniel Du Bois executed his game plan better. Caught him with the shot as Fabio was throwing a shot. Could have been the other way around.

Could have been the other way around. And we all knew that, didn't we going in, in authentic? It's heavyweight boxing. Absolutely, it's heavyweight boxing. and it's two guys that were always going to go for it early. 100%. Fabio made it clear. He wanted to go out with a bang.

He wanted to go for the knockout. He's not in there to mess around. He wanted to test his skills against one of the best heavyweights that are out there. And that's what he tried to do. Because, and once he was hurt, and it was only 17, 18 seconds in, there was two minutes 34 left when the referee said box on. I don't think he recovered Michael I mean you're a bit closer to me

I was six feet away you're actually on the ring apron I don't think he fully recovered from that knockdown Yeah From the first big round Yeah I don't think he recovered from the first round But his nature

He's a warrior by nature And he's able to go to that dark place I think if the towel didn't go in He would have continued for us As long as he The referee was about to stop it You know when the towel comes You know it's like so

So Steve Gray's going, I know it's all happened so fast. And we don't have the ability to put things in compartments, but we had the ability of replays. And Steve Gray's like that when the towel comes in. And I think Steve Gray would have stopped it in that second as well. But you're absolutely right. I'm not disagreeing with you.

Fabio would still be in the ring now taking punches. You know, he's a warrior. And he just needs to go back to the drawing board now. He needs to take a rest, spend some time with his family, and decide what he wants to do. You know, the error of the O's that may well. area is gone, you know. It's about the heavyweights having an attitude of wanting to fight each other and see who

the best is. And he's still in the mix, and there's going to be a lot of fights next year. I mean, it's not just Frank Warren talking about it. We know we're going to get the four champions. We're all going to fight a couple of times next year. There's been an awful lot of people being recycled. Get him away, get him a break and come back. And I'll give you my opinion straight away, and it's also Ritchie Woodrow's opinion.

We don't think this was too soon after the last fight. A lot of people are already sort of screaming, oh, let's see, that's what happens. It was too soon. What's your take on that, Michael? Like I said, in a build-up, when he came out of the ring the last time, he had no concussions, it was purely cosmetic.

We saw maybe four or five doctors that are medically trained and have their experience, and they gave him the go-ahead. The boxing board of control gave him the green light. So those that have experience and not experience from watching YouTube, that have studied this, in their mother's basement, as we used to say.

Yeah, they gave him the green light. And more importantly, he gave himself to green light because he thought he could correct his mistakes and get back in there. For me, this attitude of, you know, let's celebrate when we have these world-class fights. You know, the referee was in there, the corner had done their job. Both guys have come out smiling and in a somewhat good place.

Let's go again. It's a harsh old business, isn't it? The highs and loads, man. Like I've never seen, even after the last fight, you weren't like you are now. When you sleep eventually, it might not be until Tuesday, you'll sleep for 24 hours.

Mate, I'm ageing. I'm aging. I came into this. I came into this. Young and fresh. I'm starting to look like Don King. You know, this is like Don Charles.

That's when you've got to be working. Because Don Charles has looked 50 for 30 years since I first knew him, Don Charles. So, look, this game is, the highs are fantastic, and the lows are terrible. It's like a, a drive. drug this game. So, you know, with experience, you learn that you just have to, you know,

almost brush it off and keep stepping. You can't allow it to, to cloud your judgment or affect your next moves. So Michael, Michael, Michael offered it, obviously they'll give him a really good break. No one will be in contact of him. He'll coming back and get himself in the mix next year. But we hinted it, we hinted it at the very top of the show. I think this is a harder fight to come back from than the last fight, Rich, because he's a shock. Mentally, very difficult. He's a shocked. He was hurt and dropped and stopped so quickly as you and I are.

Yeah, exactly. Like you said, he had such a hard fight the first time, but he knows where he went wrong. They had a game plan this time. They're going to cut out those mistakes that they made. And yet, you know, he's walked onto a big punch and he never really recovered. So for me, he says he's going to box on.

That's up to him. But I think it'll be a long time for him to get over this, it'll be a mental thing rather than the physical thing. I think physically he's a very tough guy and he probably could box on but mentally it's going to be a tough one to recover. Whereas the last fight,

it was the physical thing, not a mental thing. So he's turned that around. Now, as we have been hinting out all the way through this show that we do have a fabulous interview with Frank Warren where he puts everything into perspective because right at the very end when the arena, when the people were arriving at a ring with their hard hats and people were shuffling around

and going off and doing this and doing that. Molly Stevens cut a line that any rugby player, any back in rugby would have been proud. She saw a gap through 17 security. She saw a gap through 11 people wearing hard hats. She saw a gap somehow, I don't know. And she appeared up in the ring with Frank Warren. Here's Molly and Frank Warren.

Frank, I mean, that was devastating from Daniel Dubois. It was. It was brutal. I mean, he was in a guy in Fabio, who's brave, and wanted to fight on. He's cornered for him in the tail, quite rightly as I feel. And it was just a tough, you know, it was tough for him. And Daniel was a man on a mission. As soon as that bell went, I mean, he just said about him and caught him some really good shots.

And then he, and what I was pleased with, he showed a lot of maturion backing off him and not getting flustered, you know, getting careless, took his time, and set him up for the next round and done the job. I mean, Richie Woodall mentioned with us in commentary, you know, the fact that Daniel Dubois actually looked like the challenger because he was a man on a mission, as you put it,

from the moment he got into the ring tonight. But you've got that sense from him all week. It's about getting the job done and moving on to the next big job for him. He is here to dominate. You're right, and I think it's my belt. I'm not going to lose it. And he had a lot of self-belief.

He was very, I mean, He was so focused. It was untrue. I mean, I was trying to talk to him. I went into both of their restaurants and trying to talk to him was very difficult. He was just like, it's like he was in another place. He was so focused on what he was going to do.

But, you know, that performance was nobody expected that. Nobody. You know, I expected, to be honest, I expect Fabio to come out for him, you know, trying to take him out early and he just didn't get a chance. Well, I think we all did, to be honest with you, Frank. But as far as Fabio goes, You know, a lot would have said he needed a longer rest as it was after the May fight,

but does this just go to show actually Fabio does need a moment out of the ring to just take stock of what's next? He'll have a rest now. I mean, he won't fight till next year if he fights on, which I'm sure he will, but not till next year. But you've got to remember, that last fight was a tough fight for both of them. It wasn't at one side. It was tough fight for both of them. And, you know, Daniel at the end, showed that he, you know, he was the better fighter and done it in his style. And he deserves all the accolades that he should,

well, he should get lots of accolades now for what he did and the way he went about his business. And perhaps with that in mind, the fact that actually, yes, absolutely it was a difficult fight for both in me. Does that say more about what Daniel Debris can do in this division and what's next for him? I'll get him out early next year. We have him out again early next year.

We just want to keep him busy. We want to get these unification fights going. We've got two big fights this year still to happen. But Aging Cavill, Kaviel. in Germany. As I said, we sold 40,000 tickets already for that. That's a big fight.

He'll be defending his B.C. Bell. And we've got, obviously, we got Tyson in with AJ. Then we've got Philippe Pogovic fighting in Croatia against Sanchez. So, you know, once all those fights happen, these guys all be looking at each other and deciding we've got to make a decision

who's going to fight who. Because at the end of the day, we just want to get the four belts on the line and find out who's. the best and the only way you're going to find out is the best I keep saying is the best and as far as Fabio is concerned I mean I mentioned that potentially arrest on the cars I feel speaker to Fraser Clark who's already calling for the trilogy is that even going to happen who knows I mean you know it'll take the rest and we'll see but you know Fabio deserves

deserves support he was well supported tonight and you know he's with us and I'll make sure if he wants to fight on and I'm sure as I said earlier that he does then I'll make sure that we we do a good job for it you know he's a lovely guy he's a great he's been a great great ambassador for boxing he still is and he's uh you know you when you look at what he's done and where he's got to having no amateur experience whatsoever it's amazing I mean in itself that's a rocky story absolutely it is an incredible story final final one for me Daniel Dubois, as far as the next opponent is concerned, you've got Cabell, you've got Tyson Fury Anthony, Joshua, you've got Hergovich, who of course, was ringside.

How realistic, though, is the Fury AJ winner for Daniel Dubois next? How realistic is that? If that fight was going to happen, it'd be a great fight, wouldn't you? All British affair. I mean, he's already done a job on AJ. I mean, destroyed AJ. I'm biased, but I think that Tyson will win the fight in December. And then we'll see where we go.

You know, I don't know what Tyson wants to do. He says he wants to fly it on, who knows. But let's get that out the way. And we're in a good place, all of us, to sit there and be able to look at all these different permutations and what we can put on. The fans are going to be swirled for choice. Well, congratulations on another brilliant spectacle year this evening, Frank.

Thank you very much. So Molly there with Frank actually right at the end, just as we left to go backstage and start trying to track people down, because we record these, we record these pods, post-fight pods at the arenas, like we were doing them live. You know, we try and keep it as vibrant as possible.

We always end up in an echoy room where Richie has to search through every single bag for just a tiny, tiny scrap of a peanut or something because he's always starving. And he's found from one of the Italian takeaways, he's found a little pack of pasta, and he's half thinking to eat it, but he's not sure if someone's maybe had their feet.

fingers in it. He's not going to touch it. I'm not going to touch you, Steve. I'm tempted, though. Because I am starving. That's where we all end up. So let's go back to Frank Warren, Richard, draw this to a close as we're getting closer and closer to one in the morning. It's obvious Frank Warren's going to put all these people together. He told me in the week, you know, he will reach out to Usik.

We don't know what Usick is going to do. We don't know what AJ and Fury would do post their fight on December the 11th, which is on Netflix. We don't know what those two would do. We don't know what those two would do. We don't know what those three will do, but we know what the four heavyweight champions will do. They will fight and they will fight regular. And we know what the contenders, the chasers, whatever you want to call them, will do.

They all want to get in the mix. We'll have a situation next year where I think we could have seven or eight, maybe even nine world heavyweight title fights in one year. And most of those fights will feature a British boxer. Yeah, really, really big fights. And Daniels, you know, he will be well in the mix with most of them, Steve, won't he? You know, you've got that really good. German box, haven't you?

Ajic Cabell. He's... He fights in November. He's the dark horse. He's a quality, quality fighter. But, you know, for me, the most natural fight for Daniel now is the winner of Tyson Fury and

AJ. Yeah. You know, but it's if they want to carry on with it. Because AJ, obviously, he beat AJ already. AJ may want revenge. I think he doesn't want revenge.

If he beats Tyson, if Tyson Fury beats AJ, will Tyson think, you know what? I'll take on Daniel DeBoar. He might just do that, Tyson is Tyson. So, yeah, there's some really big fights, and he's going to be well in there with him.

Some really big fights. You know what, Rich, we say there's some really big fights coming up, and we say at the end of each year for about the last seven years, there's been some really big fights, and that's because there have, there has been some really big fights.

That was the third World Heavyweight Championship fight to take place in Great Britain this year. It was the second to feature both, the two boxes, both from Britain. Frank Warren told me earlier in a week that the WBA might, give and sanction the Fury and AJ fight in December,

which would mean the fourth World Heavyweight championship fight to take place in Great Britain. That's never happened in a calendar. That will probably never happen again. Until next year. Then we had 68,000 outside of Arsenal Beck and MacMoodoff against Tyson Fury. Not to mention all of the 19 and 20,000 crowds we've had.

It has been absolutely stupendous. And that tonight, well, that was full of twist tonight because we didn't. People have already got messages said, I knew that would happen. I've won X. No way.

Okay, I didn't see that. I saw Daniel could win, no problem. I saw Fabio could win, no problem. I saw it going six round, seven rounds. No part. I didn't see it going points. And I didn't see, I just didn't see Dubois drop in Fabio in the first 20 seconds

with a clean shot. I didn't see it, Rich. I got the right round, wrong opponent, I did. I thought, you get nothing. I thought between two, I thought, Sorry, between one and four. So, but I honestly thought that Fabio would come out and he would catch him.

But fair play to Daniel DeBarre. He's the one that got the big shot on his opponent and he never recovered. So, yeah, but Steve, I didn't expect that. I didn't expect Daniel to come out so quick. No, I didn't either. Ritchie, it's been an absolute pleasure and a delight. And every member of the Five Live team,

it's been an absolute delight tonight. Covering big fights in front of 20,000 people in and around midnight. And just that exhaustion and the raw emotion is everywhere. That is what motivates. That's what drives people. I was saying to Stacey before the fight, Rich, that we do big one-off events better than anybody.

We just do. I'm sure we have some stinkeroo's sometimes at different ways. We've had stinkeros in history. But when we get it right and when British fans make that pilgrimage, 20,000 or 90,000 who's going to have in December, nowhere in the world does that, nowhere. and we are the envy of the world. We are the envy of the world

for what our fans do on nights like this. That's what we do. We've been doing it for years. It's not something we've only been doing for 10 minutes. Richie's been Richie. Thanks very much indeed, Rich.

Me and you only started working together about 25 years ago. It's quite ridiculous. And you're obviously very young when we started, and I was maybe not as young. I've been Steve Bunce, and this has been Five Live Boxing.

I'm Steve Bracknell, Assistant manager of Sunday League powerhouses, the Royal Oak FC. And this season, we're aiming for promotion to Division D of the Sheffield Sunday Imperial League. We are absolute dance at barebole. In light of the fact, we only had 10 players on Sunday, beggars may not be able to be chooses in this occasion.

Throughout our 13 history, this might be lowest point. Games gone, the Steve Bracknell podcast. Listen on BBC Sounds. The Signal Awards just announced, for the best podcasts of 2026. Now it's your turn. From September 29th to October 15th, you decide your favorite shows, hosts, and more in the listeners' choice awards. Visit vote.org.com to see finalists in categories like most innovative audio experience.

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