All-British heavyweight world title fight officially announced.
We heard the rumours, but now it is official.
Fabio Wardley’s career has been described as that of a Rocky story. The powerful puncher from Ipswich has defied all expectations of him and seriously overachieved.
A former white-collar fighter who had no sanctioned amateur bouts, Wardley has essentially been learning on the job for his entire professional career.
A draw with Frazer Clarke was an absolute firefight, but it led many to doubt Wardley’s ability. When Wardley blasted out Clarke in one round in their rematch, people began to believe again.
When Wardley was getting soundly outboxed by Justis Huni, it seemed he had found his level. One right hand in the 10th round, and Wardley was suddenly the WBA interim champion.
He then took on the man who held the interim title for the WBO: Joseph Parker. An underdog yet again, Wardley overcame many hairy moments to stop Parker in the 11th.
When Oleksandr Usyk chose to vacate the WBO title instead of honouring his mandatory assignment, it went right to Wardley.
And now we are here. Fabio Wardley is the full WBO heavyweight champion, and how the first defence of his title has been officially announced.
He will be taking on fellow British puncher Daniel Dubois, the former WBA (Regular) and IBF heavyweight champion.
Dubois’s story has been told plenty of times, but after a victory over Filip Hrgovic earned him the IBF interim title, he was also upgraded to full champion when Usyk chose to vacate.
Dubois defended this title by knocking out Anthony Joshua.
He then lost his belt in a rematch to Usyk.
Coming off a loss, many will question Dubois coming straight back into a title opportunity. However, the excitement of a bout between Wardley and Dubois cannot be overstated. We are talking about two of the most explosive heavyweight punchers in the world squaring off in an all-British world title fight.
This is something very special indeed.
There is a shortlist of fights between two British-born heavyweights with world titles on the line, and the most recent happened to be Dubois’s destruction of Joshua. Now Dubois will feature in the next one, and it has all the makings of a nuclear war of a fight.
Wardley (20-0-1, 19 KOs) and Dubois (22-3, 21 KOs) have both only gone the distance once in victory, possessing 40 knockouts in 42 victories between them for a shared KO percentage of 95%. This is advertised on the official poster, with the billing of “Don’t Blink”.
This is not going the distance.
The bout is set to take place on the 9th of May at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester.
Absolutely nobody will want to miss this.
𝐃𝐎𝐍’𝐓 𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊 😤🔥
Power meets power when Fabio Wardley defends his WBO World Heavyweight Championship against Daniel Dubois 💥#WardleyDubois | May 9 | @Cooplive, Manchester | Live on @DAZNBoxing pic.twitter.com/glf0dcNgPE
— Queensberry Promotions (@Queensberry) February 13, 2026
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