{"id":461347,"date":"2026-03-06T20:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T20:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/461347\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T20:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T20:38:08","slug":"wba-heavyweight-champion-targets-wardley-vs-dubois-winner-for-blockbuster-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/461347\/","title":{"rendered":"WBA heavyweight champion targets Wardley vs Dubois winner for &#8216;blockbuster&#8217; fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The winner of Fabio Wardley vs Daniel Dubois could be in line for an immediate unification showdown, depending on whether Oleksandr Usyk keeps hold of his WBA title.<\/p>\n<p>Wardley will make the first defence of his WBO title on May 9, taking on former IBF champion Dubois at Manchester\u2019s Co-op Live Arena.<\/p>\n<p>The 31-year-old was elevated from \u2018interim\u2019 to full world champion following his 11th-round finish over Joseph Parker in October, with Usyk having vacated his WBO heavyweight strap.<\/p>\n<p>Quite unexpectedly, it has since been announced that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/c5yqpj9ppkgo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the Ukrainian will face kickboxing star Rico Verhoeven<\/a> on May 23, defending his WBC title at Egypt\u2019s Pyramids of Giza.<\/p>\n<p>But while <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/wbc-under-fire-for-usyk-title-decision\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the WBC has confirmed its stance<\/a> on the matter, it is yet to be announced whether Usyk will also be defending his IBF and WBA titles.<\/p>\n<p>The division\u2019s WBA \u2018regular\u2019 champion, meanwhile, is Murat Gassiev, who claimed his secondary strap with a sixth-round stoppage victory over Kubrat Pulev in December.<\/p>\n<p>Despite previously losing a comprehensive points decision to Usyk at 200lbs, back in 2018, Gassiev has now reinvented himself as a solid heavyweight contender.<\/p>\n<p>But rather than setting his sights on a rematch with the former three-time, two-division undisputed champion, the 32-year-old is instead targeting the winner of Wardley-Dubois.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/boxing\/news\/12183\/13515065\/oleksandr-usyks-ibf-and-wba-belts-could-be-at-risk-if-he-fights-rico-verhoeven-in-a-wbc-heavyweight-title-defence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sky Sports<\/a>, Gassiev\u2019s co-promoter, Al Siesta, believes this unification match could materialise if the WBA elevates his client to full world champion \u2013 either by stripping Usyk of the title or making him \u2018champion in recess\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a similar situation to the WBO, who stripped Usyk when he decided not to face [mandatory challenger] Fabio Wardley.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis allowed the division to progress and now we see a great fight with Wardley and Dubois in May \u2013 an amazing fight that we will be keeping a very close eye on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo face the winner in the UK would be a dream for Murat and I believe, whoever the winner is, would make for a blockbuster bout for Murat in the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the WBA title is not at stake for Usyk against Verhoeven, then it only makes logical sense to strip him of his title or make him a \u2018champion in recess\u2019. This would allow Murat to be elevated to \u2018super\u2019 champion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The winner of Wardley-Dubois would likely be made a sizable favourite against Gassiev, whose heavyweight campaign has not yet set the world alight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The winner of Fabio Wardley vs Daniel Dubois could be in line for an immediate unification showdown, depending&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-461347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}