Is Wardley vs Dubois not enough? Simon Jordan’s needless Itauma jabs fail to land ahead of tantalising bout
Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois’s final face-off was led by a presenter whose efforts to create extra drama were unnecessary and unsuccessful
The tagline for Fabio Wardley vs Daniel Dubois is “Don’t Blink”, but the host of Friday’s weigh-in peculiarly set his sights beyond this fight – and on the looming presence of Moses Itauma in the heavyweight division. “Is either of you the landlord, or are you just squatters, waiting for Moses Itauma to come and take the property? ” asked Simon Jordan , referencing Anthony Joshua ’s recent message to Tyson Fury , as well as the potential next opponent for Wardley or Dubois.
Jordan, familiar to TalkSport listeners but brought in by DAZN on Friday, is always articulate but can be aggravating to athletes. He certainly tried to bring some needle to this weigh-in, but neither WBO heavyweight champion Wardley nor Dubois felt much of a prick here, as they tipped the scales then faced off ahead of Saturday’s showdown in Manchester . TalkSport host Simon Jordan (second-left) presented the weigh-in face-off for DAZN (Reuters) Dubois (251.
7lb / 114. 1kg) barely answered Jordan’s questions, instead speaking in brief mission statements as he tends to do. Wardley (242.
2lb / 109. 8kg) entertained Jordan’s queries but stayed calm, maintaining his composed demeanour from the rest of fight week. The champion (20-0-1, 19 KOs) even encouraged the crowd’s shouts in support of Dubois (22-3, 21 KOs), and there were many of them, although there were cheers for Wardley as well.