Frank Warren calls 'quit' talk about Daniel Dubois and Fabio Wardley 'totally inappropriate'

Warren says fighting on with his eye injury against Joe Joyce would have ended Dubois's career, and rules Filip Hrgovic out of a Rico Verhoeven fight on the Fury v Joshua card.

By Combat Sports UK Staff · Published Thu 15 Oct, 14:34 UK · AI-assisted reporting

Frank Warren speaking to The Stomping Ground before Dubois v Wardley 2 — Image: The Stomping Ground

Frank Warren says it is "totally inappropriate" to call either Daniel Dubois or Fabio Wardley a quitter, two days before they meet again for the WBO heavyweight title at The O2.

Warren, who promotes both fighters, was asked by The Stomping Ground about a podcast on which Tony Bellew and Don Charles, Dubois's trainer, went back over the "quit" label that has followed Dubois.

"Did he quit against Usyk? I don't think he quit against Usyk at all," Warren said. "And there was certainly no quitting him in the last fight. That's for sure."

He pointed to Dubois's stoppage defeat by Joe Joyce, when Dubois was ahead on two of the three scorecards. "He stopped fighting because he had a terrible injury," Warren said. "Once he had the MRI, it showed that he had three or four fractures of his eye socket and his eye was partly detached. So he made the right decision." Fighting on, Warren said, would have cost him: "He'd have been blind in one eye and that would have been the end of his career."

Warren was also told Charles believes Wardley "might have quit" in the first fight, which was stopped in the 11th round in Manchester in May after Dubois got up from two knockdowns. "I'm not even going to go there with that," Warren said. "These guys took big punches and in a tough fight." He added: "I think it's totally inappropriate." Wardley activated the rematch clause. "He's called it on. What quit is there in that? He's come back for the fight," Warren said.

He does not expect Saturday's rematch to go the distance. "The way these guys fight, it's impossible. This is going to be a big, big, big bust-up."

Warren also shut down talk of Filip Hrgovic facing Rico Verhoeven on the Tyson Fury v Anthony Joshua card. "He's not fighting on that card. It's not emanating from us. It's not happening," he said. Warren said Hrgovic is going to fight in Croatia, where work is under way to make it happen.

Dubois v Wardley 2 is on Saturday 17 October, live on DAZN. Start times are on our Dubois vs Wardley page.