Fabio Wardley Defends Coach Ben Davison Amid Criticism

Fabio Wardley has stepped into the line of fire to defend coach Ben Davison, insisting the criticism aimed at the trainer after Moses Itauma’s world-title defeat is “delusional” and vowing to carry the gym on his back in his own rematch with Daniel Dubois.

Itauma, just 21, emptied the tank in brutal fashion at London’s O2 Arena, dominating Filip Hrgovic for eight rounds before his body betrayed him. By the ninth, the Croatian’s experience and the youngster’s exhaustion collided, and the corner threw in the towel as a visibly spent Itauma wilted under pressure.

His pre-fight admission that he had never gone 12 rounds in sparring lit the fuse. After the stoppage, fingers pointed straight at the gym and at Davison, with questions swirling over whether the prodigy had been prepared for the deep waters of a heavyweight world-title fight.

Wardley, who knows that drowning feeling all too well after gassing late and losing to Dubois in their first meeting, has watched the pile-on with disbelief.

“It’s my turn,” he said, making clear that he expects Itauma to come again and eventually become a world champion. “It’s my turn to do my bit for the gym. 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 backs his corner

The contrast between the two nights is stark. Itauma’s corner pulled him out once it became clear there was nothing left. Wardley, by comparison, absorbed heavy punishment against Dubois and was allowed to fight on until the referee waved it off in the 11th round.

To Wardley, that wasn’t negligence. That was trust, built over years.

He insists his team judged it perfectly.

“I'll repeat over and over again, 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.”

For Wardley, the criticism misses the point: this is not a revolving-door operation. It is a tight-knit corner that has lived every hard round with him. On 17 October, when he faces Dubois again for the chance to reclaim the WBO title, he intends to turn that loyalty into a statement.

Warren calls for smarter fight management

Queensberry promoter Frank Warren, who also moved to defend Davison, accepts that the spotlight follows success. The higher the profile, the louder the backlash when things go wrong.

He made it clear that Davison’s reputation for working at the top level naturally attracts scrutiny, but he also signalled that some difficult conversations lie ahead after Itauma’s collapse against Hrgovic.

“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, in essence, is the frustration: Itauma had the fight in his hands and burned it away in the chase for a spectacular finish. The raw talent is obvious; the ring craft is still catching up.

For Davison, the coming months will be about more than pad work and game plans. Itauma must rebuild after the most painful lesson of his young career, and Wardley walks into a high-stakes rematch with Dubois carrying the weight of a gym under fire.

If he delivers on his promise and regains his title, the noise around Ben Davison will sound very different.