Fabio Wardley reached for the rematch clause before his face had finished healing. On Saturday, 17 October, the Ipswich heavyweight returns to the O2 Arena in London for a second attempt at the WBO belt that slipped away from him in the 11th round of a bloody first encounter at Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena.

The ending did not match the beginning. Wardley dropped Dubois inside the first round with a right hand, sent him to the canvas again in the third, then watched the fight slip past him round by round as the Londoner found his range.

By the time referee Howard Foster waved it off in the 11th, Dubois led 96-92 on the scorecard after 10 rounds. He had landed 179 punches to Wardley’s 97, with 87 power punches to 40. Wardley, bleeding from the nose with one eye closing, had never been stopped before.

“Revenge” at the O2

Wardley has fought at the O2 Arena before, and he is not framing the return as a comeback.

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“The O2 is like a home away from home for me. I’m looking forward to getting straight back into it, it’s going to be a rematch and it’s going to be revenge,” Wardley said at the fight announcement, via Ring Magazine.

The former white-collar fighter from Ipswich stopped Joseph Parker at the same venue in October 2025 to claim an interim WBO title, which became the full belt when Oleksandr Usyk vacated. He lost it to Dubois in his first voluntary defense.

Wardley has pointed to the May fight as a technical puzzle he can solve. “We came into that fight with all the confidence in the world but adjustments need to be made. I’ve proven I’m adaptable and I can change, and that’s what we need to do for this fight,” he told Sky Sports.

Dubois is not shifting his tone.

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“Another dominant victory and amazing performance. I can’t wait. Let’s get it on,” the champion said.

Broadcast, price and undercard

Promoter Frank Warren called the first meeting “one of the greatest heavyweight fights we’ve seen in years” when he confirmed the return at the O2.

The whole card is on DAZN pay-per-view. In the UK, the broadcast opens at 7pm local time, with ring walks for the main event expected later in the night. The pay-per-view costs £24.99 in the UK and $59.99 in the US.

The co-main event is Louie O’Doherty defending his British and Commonwealth lightweight titles against Michael Gomez Jr. The undercard also features Uzbekistan’s Olympic gold medallist Bakhodir Jalolov against Solomon Dacres in a 10-round heavyweight bout.

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What Wardley has to do

Dubois carries a record of 23-3 with 22 stoppages. Wardley is 20-1-1 with 19 knockouts, the loss in May the only blemish on a career that began on the Ipswich white-collar circuit.

The question of the night is simple. Wardley folded Dubois twice inside three rounds and could not keep him there. He has had five months to work on finishing what he started, and Dubois has had the same five months to work on not getting hit by the shot that landed in the opening round last time.

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