- Dave Allen final pick: Dubois beats Wardley at Co-op Live on May 9
- Allen's reasoning — Dubois' right hand and body work too much in the first half
- Splits the verdict from Hearn, Jordan, Itauma — three of four still picking Wardley
The White Rhino Plants His Flag
Right then. Dave Allen has finally given his final prediction on Fabio Wardley versus Daniel Dubois, and he's gone with the challenger. The line was vintage White Rhino — "obviously I'm picking him" — delivered with the kind of dry conviction that means he's not interested in covering himself either way. That's class. Allen calls it as he sees it.
And his read deserves attention. Allen has shared a ring with both these heavyweights in different settings, has trained alongside the British scene for a decade, and he isn't the sort who picks favourites for promotional reasons. If Allen is on Dubois, he's on Dubois because he's seen something in the body work and the first-round intent that makes him think the South Londoner gets through Wardley before the engine question matters.
The Allen Logic — And Why It Lands
Let's not beat around the bush. Dubois of the last 18 months is a different animal. The way he erased Anthony Joshua at Wembley in five rounds. The body shots that turned Jarrell Miller into a heap on the canvas. The right uppercut that finished Filip Hrgovic. That isn't a fluke run — that's a heavyweight who has solved the technical problems Joyce and Usyk used to expose.
Allen's pick is built on that. He thinks Dubois starts fast, finds the right hand inside three rounds, and gets Wardley out of there before the late-round engine question even gets asked. There are two ways to win this fight, and Allen is firmly on the Dubois route — early pressure, body shots, force the champion onto the back foot, and let the right hand do the rest.
The Counter — Why Hearn, Jordan And Itauma Disagree
Allen is not in the majority. Eddie Hearn has finally landed on Wardley, Simon Jordan has too, and Moses Itauma has gone on record saying he sees the champion finishing Dubois inside four. The pattern with the pro takes this week is consistent — Wardley's late-round engine, his body work, his ability to absorb a right hand and answer back. Allen is the outlier.
But outliers are sometimes right. Allen knows Dubois personally, has seen him in Don Charles' camp at Royal Greenwich, and he's not falling for the narrative that Joshua and Miller were one-punch erasures. He sees a heavyweight who has built up his fundamentals over a year and a half, hits harder than anyone in the division below cruiserweight, and walks in with a 75% knockout ratio that's been climbing.
The Round Allen Has In Mind
Allen hasn't given a precise round in the public clip, but the body language tells you he's thinking inside six. That's where Dubois has finished his last three big nights — Joshua in five, Miller in two, Hrgovic in eight (which Allen probably regards as the late one). It's a brilliant time-frame for the challenger because Wardley's identity as a fighter is built on finishing the second half. If Dubois doesn't let him get there, the champion can't bring his best version to the contest.
Make no mistake — this is the scenario Andy Lee will have war-gamed for hours in Wardley's camp. Clinch, jab, get out of the pocket, drag the fight into rounds seven and beyond. Allen's pick is the Wardley nightmare scenario, and it's the most honest one because nobody is pretending Dubois has lost his power.
Our Verdict
Boxing Lookout still has Wardley by late stoppage — round nine, body breakdown, the sort of finish the champion has made his calling card. But Allen's read is the most coherent challenger pick of fight week. If you're betting on Dubois, you're betting on the Allen scenario: early right hand, body work, force Wardley to fight on the back foot in front of a Manchester crowd that won't know which way to lean.
Prediction: Wardley TKO9. Allen says Dubois inside six. Either way, this isn't going twelve rounds — and we'll all be a lot wiser by Saturday night. If you know, you know.