The first fight between Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois was brutal, packed with twists, cuts, knockdowns and a bloody end after 28 seconds of the eleventh round. The WBO heavyweight championship of the world was just a bonus trinket on the night.
They will do it all again on 17 October at the O2; it is one of the best possible rematches that could be made in the heavyweight division. It is the first time two British heavyweights have met in a rematch for a world title; it will also be the third fight involving British boxers for a world heavyweight championship this year to take place in Britain.
Dubois was the challenger back in May for the WBO championship, dropped in the first round and again in the third round and seemingly finished. Wardley let his chance slide, never took advantage as Dubois struggled to clear his head and steady his legs. It was a stunning start and a relief when the savagery was stopped.
“It was not as bad as it looked,” insisted Wardley three weeks ago. His damaged nose heavily hidden behind a coat of make-up.
When the fight was stopped, Wardley was on his feet, his right eye closing, his nose slashed open across the bridge; he was an easy target for anything that Dubois threw. As Wardley said: “My body failed me but not my heart. And that I can live with.”
Dubois had climbed up twice, shaken off the mist and turned the fight in the sixth; in the seventh the old wound on Wardley’s nose was spurting blood and his right eye was a slit, but before the start of nine and ten, Wardley somehow survived inspections by the blood-splattered ringside doctor. It was not an ordinary fight, and the 18,000 people at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester will never forget what they witnessed.
The rematch-clause was activated quickly by Wardley after the loss. He watched the fight back in the privacy of his home and let his wounds heal. And that includes his pride. Dubois agreed, went back into camp with Don Charles, and the fight was on. It is a different city, with the same capacity crowd of just under 20,000.
It is a rematch that will inevitably follow a similar pattern, knockdowns, blood, guts, and a stoppage win. Not all rematches are so easy to predict, but Wardley and Dubois II has that feel of a fight that will just start at about the point the first fight finished.
“This is my story now,” said Dubois in the ring that night. He is right, after controversial defeats and the great win against Anthony Joshua in late 2024, there were still many in the boxing trade convinced that Dubois would fold under pressure.
“Daniel has silenced the critics forever,” said Charles in the emotional aftermath of the fight in May.
Wardley had entered the ring as the unlikeliest of champions; he had never fought as an amateur and had started to box on the often-misleading white collar circuit in Suffolk. It was a start and a location as odd and remote as possible for a man who would one day be a world heavyweight champion. Wardley had been living a boxing fairy tale, one fight at a time.
In the end, it was not the injuries that really beat Wardley and left him exposed in the 11th round. It was the lack of ring pedigree, and that shortage of boxing intelligence allowed Dubois to survive and thrive and win.
Wardley is a different boxer now – defeats can make fighters: Dubois is a perfect example of that. Dubois knows it will be painful again, but his long life in gyms and the ring makes him the favourite to repeat the win if Wardley makes the same naive mistakes. It is a special fight.
Dubois vs Wardley 2 full fight card
Daniel Dubois vs Fabio Wardley - WBO heavyweight world title
Louie O’Doherty vs Michael Gomez Jr - British and Commonwealth lightweight titles
Bakhodir Jalolov vs Solomon Dacres - heavyweight
Tony Curtis vs Kerim Agius - super flightweight
Leighton Birchall vs Luis Vara Carrillo - featherweight
Fawas Aborode vs Rashid Omar - lightweight
Manny Safari vs Jake Pollard - featherweight
Zayn Ahmed vs Kasey Bradnum - super featherweight
Issiah Hamilton-Allen vs Jensen Irving - middleweight
