Champion dominates fellow British boxer in London earlier than dealing with a problem from IBO champion Hrgovic.
Printed On 18 Oct 2026
Daniel “Dynamite” Dubois has retained his WBO heavyweight belt with a one-sided and devastating second-round stoppage of fellow British boxer Fabio Wardley of their world title rematch in London.
The 29-year-old champion made a storming begin on the O2 Area on Saturday, and Wardley’s legs gave approach inside 17 seconds of the opening bell as Dubois floored him with a straight proper punch.
Wardley, 31, beat the depend and will have been stopped on the finish of the primary spherical when he took an extra brutal pounding on the ropes however was saved by the bell.
There was no escape from the onslaught of blows within the second spherical as Dubois picked up the place he left off and Wardley took punch after punch till the towel was thrown in and referee Steve Grey introduced the struggle to a detailed.
“Fabio is a good warrior, coming in for a second time, nevertheless it was my time and my period,” mentioned “Triple D”, by no means a person for lengthy speeches. “I had my intentions, dangerous intentions, from the start.
“Our again was in opposition to the wall the primary time. This time, we simply needed to go on the market and present that we imply enterprise, and that’s what we did tonight.”
Dubois dealt Wardley his first defeat as knowledgeable in Could when he got here again from two knockdowns, the primary after 16 seconds, to take the title within the eleventh spherical of a thunderous and bloody conflict in Manchester.
Wardley, promoted to WBO champion in November after Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk vacated the title, was acclaimed for his braveness and refusal to offer within the first time round, however on Saturday, he appeared like a shell of the person seen in Manchester.
He now has a file of 20 wins and two defeats with Dubois on 24 wins with three defeats.
“I’ve all the time thrown myself in with the perfect opponents on the market, the hardest, the most important, hardest, meanest guys round. There’s no disgrace in testing your self in opposition to the perfect,” he mentioned.
“Daniel’s a testomony to developing quick and coming once more. I’ll be trying to do the very same factor.
“Boxing is a recreation of superb margins. It may be performed and over in a spherical or two, or it might probably go into an enormous previous battle prefer it was final time.”
Dubois was beforehand the IBF champion, dropping the title to Usyk in London in July final yr earlier than coming again to take the WBO belt from Wardley.
Croatian Filip Hrgovic, the IBF champion after beating the UK’s Moses Itauma in August, was ringside on Saturday and challenged Dubois to a struggle with each belts on the road.
“It was a simple night time for Daniel. He did job, fast win. So he’s able to struggle me in March, proper, Daniel?” Hrgovic mentioned earlier than promoter Frank Warren steered he might need to cope with different candidates first.
Dubois beat the Croatian in June 2024 to take the interim IBF belt and was then upgraded to champion when Usyk vacated his title.
“I wish to have a rematch with him. I wish to get my previous belt again and rule the division,” Dubois mentioned.
