Dubois Stops Wardley in Two Rounds to Retain WBO Heavyweight Title

Daniel Dubois kept his WBO heavyweight title on Saturday night with a second round stoppage of Fabio Wardley in their rematch at the O2 Arena in London. Wardley's corner threw in the towel at 2:21 of the second round after Dubois trapped him in a corner and unloaded a flurry of punches, Reuters and The Times reported.

Over in the second round

Dubois set the tone almost with the first punch he threw. A huge overhand right put Wardley down for a count within 17 seconds of the opening bell, and the challenger never recovered his footing in the fight. Dubois kept landing heavy right hands through the first round and had Wardley pinned on the ropes taking a pounding when the bell saved him at the end of the round.

The second round followed the same pattern. Wardley tried to swing his way back into the contest, but Dubois found him again with clean shots and drove him into the corner. With the champion unloading and Wardley unable to answer, trainer Ben Davison threw in the towel and the fight was waved off.

Nothing like the first fight

The rematch could hardly have been more different from the first meeting. In Manchester in May, Dubois climbed off the canvas twice, the first knockdown against him coming after just 16 seconds, before stopping Wardley in the 11th round of a hard, bloody fight to take the title. That defeat was the first of Wardley's professional career.

Wardley had been promoted to WBO champion in November 2025 after Oleksandr Usyk vacated the title, according to Reuters. He exercised the rematch clause in his contract just six days after losing it, talkSPORT reported, and the second fight was made for London five months later. This time there was no comeback and no long war. Dubois did the early damage himself and finished the job before the end of the second round.

The fighters react

"Fabio is a great warrior, but it was my time, my era," Dubois said afterwards, in comments reported by talkSPORT. "I had bad intentions from the beginning."

Wardley refused to blame the short turnaround between the two fights. "I did not execute the game plan properly, that is all," he said, in comments reported by Bad Left Hook. "We will go back to the drawing board."

Records and the undercard

The win takes Dubois, 29, to 24 wins and 3 defeats, with 23 of those wins by knockout. Wardley, 31, falls to 20 wins, 2 defeats and 1 draw, with both of his losses now coming against Dubois.

On the undercard at the O2, Bakhodir Jalolov beat Solomon Dacres by unanimous decision, with scorecards of 99-91, 99-90 and 99-90. Louie O'Doherty and Michael Gomez Jr fought to a majority draw, and Adam Olaniyan stopped Dan Garber in the second round.