{"id":937504,"date":"2026-10-18T10:16:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T10:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/937504\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T10:16:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T10:16:19","slug":"daniel-dubois-defeats-fabio-wardley-to-retain-wbo-heavyweight-boxing-title-boxing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/937504\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Dubois defeats Fabio Wardley to retain WBO heavyweight boxing title | Boxing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Champion dominates fellow British boxer in London before facing a challenge from IBO champion Hrgovic.<\/p>\n

Published On 18 Oct 202618 Oct 2026<\/p>\n

Daniel \u201cDynamite\u201d Dubois has retained his WBO \u2060\u2060heavyweight belt with a one-sided \u2060\u2060and devastating second-round stoppage of fellow British boxer Fabio Wardley in their world title rematch in London.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old champion made a storming start at the O2 Arena on Saturday, and Wardley\u2019s legs gave way within 17 seconds of the opening bell as Dubois floored him with a straight right punch.<\/p>\n

Wardley, 31, beat the count and could have been stopped at the end of the first round when he took a further brutal pounding on the ropes but \u2060\u2060was saved by the bell.<\/p>\n

\"BoxingDubois dominated Wardley during the WBO world heavyweight title fight [John Sibley\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

There was no escape from the onslaught of blows in the second round as Dubois picked up where he left off and Wardley took punch after punch until the towel was thrown in and referee Steve Gray brought the fight to a close.<\/p>\n

\u201cFabio is a great warrior, coming in for a second time, but it was my time and my era,\u201d said \u201cTriple D\u201d, never \u200c\u200ca man for long speeches. \u201cI had my intentions, bad intentions, from the beginning.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur back was against the wall the first time. This time, we just had to go out there and show that we mean business, and that\u2019s what we did tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dubois dealt Wardley his first defeat as a professional in May when he came back from two knockdowns, the first after 16 seconds, to take the title in the 11th round of a thunderous and bloody clash in Manchester.<\/p>\n

\"BoxingDubois knocked down Wardley within the first 17 seconds of the fight [John Sibley\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

Wardley, promoted to WBO champion in November after Ukraine\u2019s Oleksandr Usyk vacated the title, was \u2060\u2060acclaimed for his courage and refusal to give in the first time around, but on Saturday, he \u2060\u2060looked like a shell of the man seen in Manchester.<\/p>\n

He now has a record of 20 wins and two defeats with Dubois on 24 wins with three defeats.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always thrown myself in with the best competitors out there, the toughest, the biggest, hardest, meanest guys around. There\u2019s no shame in testing yourself against the best,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDaniel\u2019s \u2060\u2060a testament to coming up short and coming again. I\u2019ll be looking to do the exact same thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoxing is a game of fine margins. It can be done and over in a \u2060\u2060round or two, or it can go into a big old war like it \u2060\u2060was last time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BoxingThe match was ended in the second round and Dubois declared the champion [John Sibley\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

Dubois was previously the IBF champion, losing the title to Usyk in London in July last year before coming back to take the WBO belt from Wardley.<\/p>\n

Croatian Filip Hrgovic, the IBF champion after beating the United Kingdom\u2019s Moses Itauma in August, was ringside on Saturday and challenged Dubois to a fight with both belts \u200c\u200con the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an easy night for Daniel. He did a good job, quick win. So he\u2019s ready to fight me in March, right, Daniel?\u201d Hrgovic said before promoter Frank Warren suggested he might have to deal with other candidates first.<\/p>\n

Dubois beat \u200c\u200cthe \u200c\u200cCroatian in June 2024 to take the interim IBF belt and was then upgraded to champion when Usyk vacated his title.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to have a rematch with him. I want to get my old belt back and rule the division,\u201d Dubois said.<\/p>\n

\"BoxingIBF champion Filip Hrgovic holds his belt in the ring after the fight [John Sibley\/Reuters]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Champion dominates fellow British boxer in London before facing a challenge from IBO champion Hrgovic. Published On 18…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":937505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,3456,457,82,127],"class_list":["post-937504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-europe","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=937504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/937505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}