Fabio Wardley Defends Coach Ben Davison After Itauma's Collapse

Fabio Wardley has stepped into the line of fire for his coach Ben Davison, pushing back hard against what he calls “delusional” criticism after Moses Itauma’s painful collapse against Filip Hrgovic.

The fallout from Saturday night at London’s O2 Arena has been fierce. Itauma, 21, boxed beautifully for eight rounds, bossing the tempo, outworking Hrgovic and looking every inch a future world heavyweight champion. Then the tank emptied.

By the ninth, the young Briton looked drained, his legs heavy, his punches laboured. Hrgovic, battle-hardened and still dangerous, began to walk him down. The corner saw enough and threw in the towel, ending Itauma’s bid to become the second-youngest world heavyweight champion in history.

The stoppage lit up the debate. Itauma had admitted before the fight that he had never gone 12 rounds in sparring. Once the result was in, fingers pointed straight at the gym and at Davison, with accusations that the preparation had been badly misjudged.

Wardley, who shares that corner team, has heard enough.

“It’s my turn to do my bit for the gym,” the Ipswich heavyweight said, making it clear he intends to answer in the ring. “It's my turn to prove because I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of criticism he's [Davison] received and just almost in shock of just like, I don't know another trainer in British boxing that gets so much stick after a loss.

“I find it bemusing, like it's delusional to me. If anything, that's added a bit of fuel to me to be like, ‘Alright, fine, no worries – I'll show you what us, the team, Ben Davison, what we can all do. I'll prove it to you. I'll take that on my shoulders. I'll wear that, no problem’.”

Wardley knows exactly how savage heavyweight lessons can be. In his first fight with Daniel Dubois, he dominated long stretches, only to fade badly down the stretch and get stopped in the 11th after absorbing heavy punishment. No towel came that night. The referee stepped in.

The 31-year-old, though, refuses to blame his corner for that defeat. Quite the opposite.

He calls their handling of the Dubois fight “perfect” and stresses that his team is built on deep, long-term trust, not short-term fixes or fashionable alliances.

“The people in my corner aren't new,” he said. “Like Daniel and Don [Charles, Dubois’s trainer], for example. I'm not flicking from coach to coach to coach to coach to people who don’t know me. One, I’ve had Robert Hodgins, who’s been my coach since I started. And I mean that from since I first ever put on a pair of gloves. I trust that man with my life.

“Same with Ben Davison. He's been with me for five, six, maybe coming up to seven years. I trust that man as well. So, these aren’t new people.

“These aren’t fresh people that are inexperienced or don’t know me. They’ve seen me at hard spas. They’ve seen me through hard fights and hard moments and hard occasions. They know my durability and what I can go through and how I can come out on the other side.”

That loyalty now carries extra weight. Wardley is heading into a high-stakes rematch with Dubois on 17 October, chasing back the WBO title he lost. He believes that night is his chance to showcase not just his own evolution, but the quality of the gym so many are rushing to question.

While Wardley rallies around Davison, Queensberry promoter Frank Warren has taken a more clinical view of Itauma’s defeat. He defended Davison’s broader reputation, but made it clear that the way the young heavyweight burned himself out will be a topic of serious discussion.

“Regarding Ben, we will have a chat,” Warren said. “There’s certain things that I’ve seen in the fight and seen on the night that obviously have got to be dealt with.

“You have to manage a fight. All he’d done, he got in the ring, he just went and put his foot down on the accelerator and pushed it in overdrive and never took it off.

“He never went out; he never sort of went back to the jab, moved around, just took it easy, calmed down. If he’d have just boxed – what was he, eight rounds up on all the cards? All he had to do was box.”

That is the sting in this story. Itauma wasn’t outclassed; he was outlasted. He had the fight in his hands and let adrenaline, youth and ambition burn through his reserves.

For Davison, that brings scrutiny. For Wardley, it brings responsibility.

He has nailed his colours to the mast: this is his gym, his coach, his team. On 17 October, under the lights and with Dubois in front of him again, he intends to answer every question the hard way – three minutes at a time.