BACK ON THE HEAVYWEIGHT TRAIN

THE HEAVYWEIGHT BANDWAGON continues to roll full steam ahead and, on Saturday October 17, Daniel Dubois and Fabio Wardley will deliver a sequel to the Manchester thriller they produced back in May.

This time around the brutal drama will be performed in the capital, at The o2, and anticipation is building over just how Part 2 will unfold.

Personally, I am particularly thrilled that this will be the third world heavyweight title fight staged in the UK across 2026 and I very much hope this trend will continue for many years.

Back in the day, Britain rarely got a look-in when it came to the big heavyweight collisions and it was much the same across Europe too. The heavyweights were an American thing and it wasn’t until Lennox Lewis and then the Klitschkos came along that the sands began to shift.

America would love to be restored to former glories but, for whatever reason, the production line has been far from prolific and lighter weight classes have dominated.

The heavyweights is like a sport within a sport and it is the one that captures the imagination of the public. The sporting landscape has changed over the years, but a heavyweight world title fight remains right up there with the biggest occasions and it is always highly newsworthy.

Queensberry is now recognised as the ‘Home of the Heavyweights’ and this was not an accidental development. It is as a result of extensive long-term planning to position ourselves right at the forefront of the division.

Heavyweight boxing creates a boom and the rest of the sport benefits from this and the wider interest it generates.

It helps that we aren’t talking about lumbering giants plodding around the ring as we have seen in the past on occasion. These modern heavyweights are something else and some of them move like middleweights, but carry explosive power.

Daniel and Fabio are mighty heavies with concussive punching power. The first fight could have been all over inside of a minute if Daniel hadn’t composed himself after the first knockdown.

He was put down again in the third, but you got the sense that he already believed a storm was weathered and he was the one who would come on strong.

It was right up there with the best fights I have seen live and many people told me they hadn’t witnessed such a captivating spectacle.

Fabio ended up taking enormous punishment, but it only took him a matter of days before he indicated that he would be taking up his right to a rematch.

It was no surprise really. Fabio backs himself in a big way and he will have taken confidence from the way he reacted after his humdinger with Frazer Clarke a couple of years ago that left him similarly battered and bruised.

When they ran it back seven months later, Fabio crunched Frazer in the first round and it was all over. He has since been up against it in fights against Justis Huni and Joseph Parker, but he found a way to win.

You write off Fabio at your peril and I know Daniel will not regard this as a foregone conclusion. Anything but.

Tickets are flying out of the door for what will be an unforgettable night at The o2. Snap up your tickets soon to be part of a Golden Era of British heavyweights.