Frank Warren still views Daniel Dubois against Fabio Wardley as a 50-50 fight heading into Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London. Even though Dubois won their violent clash in May, Wardley dropped him in the first and third rounds, proving his power can alter the course of the bout instantly.

Dubois weathered that storm to secure the stoppage, yet those early visits to the canvas give Wardley massive confidence that he can flip the script. The real challenge for Wardley will be finishing the job if he gets Dubois in trouble again.

“I just feel that either of them can win. I think it’s still an even-money fight,” Warren told talkSPORT. “Daniel will go as favorite because he’s probably … got more experience as amateur as well as pro.”

Surviving clean bombs once does not guarantee Dubois can take them a second time. At the same time, reckless aggression could cost either man dearly.

“You’ve got to remember he called for this rematch,” Warren said of Wardley. “It was a brutal fight in May, and here we are now, and it’s on, and he believes that he can win it.”

Warren believes victory hinges on establishing the jab instead of hunting for wild knockout blows right away. For Dubois, a sharp jab keeps Wardley on the outside and stops him from landing cold early.

“For me, the key to this fight is getting behind the jab,” Warren said. “Not looking to lead with big punches, to actually go out and try and … jab and then let your shots go.”

Both heavyweights know what to expect after their first battle. The winner will be the man who made the right adjustments and capitalizes on them first. Neither fighter is built to play it safe, which is why Warren expects another explosive finish before the final bell sounds. Dubois proved his resilience, Wardley proved his firepower, and both step into the ring knowing one clean shot can end it.

When promoters preach boxing fundamentals and patience for a high-profile rematch, they are usually trying to protect their fighters from another grueling brawl. The problem is that fans are paying for fireworks, not a tactical chess match.

“They know each other’s strengths and weaknesses,” Warren said. “It’s who’s learned from the last fight and who can exploit what he’s learned.”

If Dubois and Wardley actually listen to Warren and spend 36 minutes trading cautious jabs from ring center, public reaction will be brutal. Paying premium pay-per-view prices on DAZN just to watch two sluggers neutralize each other behind the lead hand is the exact opposite of what made their May fight thrilling.

“I don’t think the fight’s going to go the distance, whatever happens.”

The thin undercard makes that risk even worse. Here, there is zero safety net. If the headliner devolves into a safety-first sparring session, the whole broadcast will disappoint, and the backlash from paying customers will land squarely on Warren.

Sebastian Fundora gave Ermal Hadribeaj an icy glare during Thursday’s final presser at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Tension spiked when Hadribeaj aimed an imaginary sniper rifle directly at the champion’s chin.

Fundora kept his cool. The towering titlist didn’t swat the hand away. He didn’t shove the challenger. He simply stared him down, leaving the theatrics entirely to the Albanian contender.

Many boxing fans dismiss Saturday’s DAZN broadcast as a total mismatch. They might be forgetting history. Brian Mendoza knocked Fundora out cold in 2023. Erickson Lubin battered him. Tim Tszyu landed heavy leather on him. Those past fights prove the champion absorbs massive punishment when his defense gets sloppy.

The height gap between the two southpaws is ridiculous. DAZN’s faceoff clip showed the eight-inch difference clearly. Hadribeaj stands five feet ten inches tall, forcing him to point his fake rifle skyward toward Fundora’s 6’6″ stature.

Landing real leather will prove vastly tougher than gesturing on stage. Hadribeaj has to slip past huge reaching punches. He must escape clean counters. Closing distance against the champion is tricky because Fundora actually loves trading in tight phone booths.

That exact habit offers Hadribeaj his clearest path toward an upset. Fundora constantly surrenders his height by planting his feet inside. Shorter opponents suddenly find themselves in prime position to connect clean shots.

Mendoza exploited that flaw with a brutal left hook. Hadribeaj hasn’t demonstrated that kind of world class power against elite fighters yet. Still, writing off the challenger ignores the defensive gaps Fundora regularly presents.

The champion stayed composed on stage. Bringing that same discipline into Saturday night keeps the challenger outside, preventing Hadribeaj from getting the messy close-quarters brawl he desperately craves.

Hadribeaj’s taunting is unlikely to get Fundora to fight with reckless anger. Fundora has been through heated build-ups before, taken real damage in wars with Lubin and Tszyu, and generally keeps an even temper outside the ring. At the presser, he watched the sniper pantomime without flinching or retaliating.

The interesting part is that Hadribeaj probably does not even need to make Fundora angry to get the fight he wants. Fundora naturally surrenders his eight-inch height advantage without any emotional prompting. His default setting is to march forward, plant his feet, and throw uppercuts and hooks in a phone booth.

He gives up range as a matter of style, not because his temper got the better of him. That was how Mendoza caught him, and that was how Tszyu landed punishing overhand rights before the cut changed the dynamic.

Hadribeaj’s hurdle is what happens when he actually gets inside. Fundora is lethal in close quarters, throwing sharp uppercuts that chew fighters up as they try to stay under his reach. If Hadribeaj spends energy looking for one theatrical, loaded-up counter shot against a guy who throws heavy volume in the pocket, he risks getting overwhelmed by the sheer number of punches coming back at him.

Keith Thurman has questioned the gumption of one man as he considers who would emerge triumphant between Shakur Stevenson and Devin Haney.

The two pound-for-pound stars are in deep negotiations, with November 28 and Atlanta having been proposed as the respective date and location for their showdown.

Or at least, this was according to Devin’s father and trainer, Bill Haney, who expressed confidence that their all-American fight would become a reality.

Since those details were suggested, however, it has been reported that a money-related hurdle could cause their contest to take place at a later date.

As for the matchup itself, many would give the edge to Stevenson based on his wide unanimous decision victory over Teofimo Lopez in January.

Back then, the 29-year-old became a four-division world champion and could soon compete at a higher weight, with Haney having seemingly agreed to meet at 145lbs.

As the naturally bigger man, ‘The Dream’ comes off a unanimous decision victory over Brian Norman Jr, who he dethroned for the WBO world welterweight title in November.

But despite Haney’s size advantage, former world champion Thurman has told FightHype that he is not convinced by the 27-year-old’s ability to dog it out in the trenches.

“[It’s] not even just the defence [of Stevenson, but also] the speed. Speed kills.

“I favour Shakur in that matchup, because I’ve never seen one ounce of dog [in Haney]and I don’t know if a non-dog will be able to beat a Shakur.”

Given that he survived three knockdowns against Ryan Garcia, and overcame a late scare in his 2021 encounter with Jorge Linares, you could argue that there is, in fact, sufficient evidence to reflect Haney’s resolve.