{"id":487552,"date":"2026-03-21T11:46:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T11:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/487552\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T11:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T11:46:07","slug":"fabio-wardley-sets-sights-on-one-man-after-daniel-dubois-fight-everything-else-is-secondary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/487552\/","title":{"rendered":"Fabio Wardley sets sights on one man after Daniel Dubois fight: “Everything else is secondary”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fabio Wardley<\/a> has made it crystal clear who he wishes to face after May 9, when he firmly believes a win over Daniel Dubois<\/a> will come to fruition.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old is gearing up to defend his WBO world title at Manchester\u2019s Co-op Live, with former heavyweight champion Dubois looking to scupper his plans.<\/p>\n

\u2018Dynamite\u2019 became the IBF world champion following his eighth-round finish over Filip Hrgovic in 2024, before defending the title against Anthony Joshua later that year.<\/p>\n

As a result of his five-round demolition job against \u2018AJ\u2019<\/a>, Dubois later secured an undisputed showdown with Oleksandr Usyk, who ultimately handed him a fifth-round stoppage defeat last July.<\/p>\n

Wardley, meanwhile, comes off an 11th-round finish over Joseph Parker last October, overcoming their enthralling battle with no small amount of grit and self-belief.<\/p>\n

The Ipswich man was then elevated from \u2018interim\u2019 to full WBO champion after Usyk vacated the title<\/a>, rather than collide with his mandatory challenger, in November.<\/p>\n

Since then, though, the Ukrainian has expressed his interest in facing the winner of Wardley-Dubois after his clash with kickboxer Rico Verhoeven on May 23.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, Wardley has also told Boxing Now<\/a> that he is angling for a shot at Usyk, hoping to cement himself as the bona fide heavyweight king.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter I win and beat Daniel, I\u2019ll be looking at Usyk, and ultimately he holds the cards, so I\u2019ll be waiting to hear what he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen everything else will be secondary to that, whether it be a [Tyson] Fury fight or \u2013 hard to mention his name, because of obviously what\u2019s going on \u2013 but whether it be an \u2018AJ\u2019, or something like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut ultimately, my eyes will be set on Usyk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wardley has previously expressed an openness to lock horns with Fury, who must first complete his comeback assignment against Arslanbek Makhmudov on April 11.<\/p>\n

As for Joshua, the two-time heavyweight champion has now returned to the gym, training with Usyk, but is yet to confirm any details regarding his next outing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fabio Wardley has made it crystal clear who he wishes to face after May 9, when he firmly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-487552","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\/487552","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=487552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}