UK Boxing
Who’s next for Daniel Dubois after Wardley’s win
Daniel Dubois returned to the ring last night after the reign of WBO world champion Fabio Wardley.
Dubois’ victory over Wardley was the first ever defeat for the Ipswich player.
After 10 months outside the ring, “DDD” achieved a real victory over the undefeated champion, although many questioned Dubois entering such a arduous fight straight away.
He faced adversity in the first seconds of the competition cut down and dropped after the first shot his opponent landed.
Dubois showed a lot of experience throughout the fight. He went down again in the third period, but managed to recover from further adversity.
“Dynamite” showed off his technical skill, poise and brute strength throughout the match until the referee stepped in.
He currently holds the WBO world heavyweight title and will be looking for his first defense, with three possible names as his next potential opponents.
Moses This is going to hurt
Probably the fight that the boxing public wants most will be the fight with 21-year-old Moses Itauma.
Itauma’s two biggest wins came just a few weeks ago against Dillian Whyte and Jermaine Franklin. Despite his lack of experience on the world stage, many predict he will rule the division.
He currently trains at the same stable as Wardley, so he will likely want to learn from his stablemate’s defeat in case he ever shares the ring with “DDD”.
Sam Jones called the fight “inevitable,” and David Coldwell spoke to professional boxing fans and admitted that if he had to pick a winner, he would lean toward Itauma.
The 21-year-old is set to return on August 8, headlining London for the first time in his career, with promoter Frank Warren confirming the return date.
Aleksander Usyk
With Dubois currently holding the WBO title, he holds the only belt missing from two-time undisputed world champion Oleksandr Usyk, which means they may want to arrange a third meeting between the pair.
The Ukrainian defeated “DDD” in both of his previous fights, stopping him in the ninth round in 2023 and the fifth round last year.
A trilogy is unlikely, but remains possible if “The Cat” goes unchallenged for a third time.
Usyk returns to the ring on May 23 against kickboxing star Rico Verhoeven and is then expected to defend his WBC title against Agit Kabayel.
Fabio Wardley
After such a brutal fight, a rematch with Wardley seems unlikely and the 31-year-old suffered significant injuries.
Promoter Frank Warren, however, confirmed that there was a rematch clause in the contract when the fight was signed, which was presumably up to Wardley and his team to practice if they wanted.
Many of them have already taken to social media to say that they do not want the fighters to face each other next, calling yesterday’s fight “arduous to watch.”
There is no need for a rematch. It was a fantastic fight, but it was absolutely certain that Dubois was the better man and Wardley suffered a lot in that fight.
Wardley is a tough guy and has other fights ahead of him
— #RingsideFracas (@Ringside_Fracas) May 9, 2026
The post Who’s next for Daniel Dubois after Wardley’s win appeared first on ProBoxing-Fans.com.
UK Boxing
What Fabio Wardley told his mother after his brutal fight with Daniel Dubois, which was criticized by the referee
UK Boxing
Frank Warren reveals the clause regarding Daniel Dubois’ rematch with Fabio Wardley after the classic fight
Daniel Dubois climbed to the top twice, defeating Fabio Wardley in the 11th round to become the WBO heavyweight champion after an epic battle in Manchester on Saturday.
Dubois (23-3, 22 KO) was eliminated in both the first and third round, but stopped Wardley (20-1-1, 19 KO) in the penultimate round at the Co-op Live Arena.
With both fighters entering the bout with a 95% knockout rate, few expected the fight to be a success and it seemed like an early night was on the cards in the first 10 seconds.
Wardley, making the first defense of his WBO crown, detonated a brutal right hand that knocked his rival to the seat.
The 28-year-old quickly recovered and started punching with a piston in the second round.
However, the champion fired back in the third round, with another brutal right hand shaking “Dynamite” and sending him to the canvas.
However, Wardley’s success faded after the third round as the former IBF world champion launched a ruthless attack.
The player from Ipswich got back on his feet halfway through the sixth match and, after a series of blows, was one step away from being stopped.
By the seventh round, the 31-year-old’s face was covered in blood, although he bravely lunged for the fence in the hope of landing his trademark right hand, which has defeated Joseph Parker and Justis Huni in his last two fights.
At the beginning of the ninth episode, Wardley was examined by the ringside doctor, with his right eye closed, but was allowed to continue.
Dubois enters the fight after losing by knockout in the fifth round Aleksander Usyk last August he stunned his opponent with another right hand and Wardley looked completely exhausted.
At the beginning of the 10th round, he was examined again by the ring doctor, although he was forced to impose an even greater punishment.
However, his courageous run ended early in the 11th round, and a three-punch attack prompted referee Howard Foster to finally intervene and crown Dubois a two-time world heavyweight champion.
Wardley suffered the first defeat of his professional career.
“Thank you Fabio for a great fight,” Dubois said after the fight.
“It was an honor to stand in the ring with him.”
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Rafferty retires Essuman
Jack Rafferty forced Eko Essuman to retire after the sixth round of their welterweight bout.
Essuman (22-3, 8 KO) suffered a grave injury in the third round and blood flowed into his left eye throughout the fight.
With his eyesight failing to improve, “The Engine” was withdrawn in a corner kick, and Rafferty (27-0-1, 18 KO) returned to winning ways after a majority draw with Mark Chamberlain in August and won the WBA gold welterweight title.
Rhea stops Cameron
Bradley Rea returned to winning ways after stopping Liam Cameron in the fourth round.
Rea (22-2, 11 KO), who was defeated by Lyndon Arthur in November, defeated Cameron (24-8-1, 10 KO) with a strenuous right hand in the fourth quarter.
The player from Sheffield got up, but another attack knocked him to the ground and the referee waved his hand.
Rea became the second man to stop Cameron, who was previously stopped by Ben Whittaker, and won the WBA International featherlight heavyweight title in the process.
Chelli stuns Morrell
Zak Chelli pulled off a huge upset by stopping David Morrell in the 10th and final round.
Morrell (12-2, 9 KO) agreed to face Chelli (17-3-1, 9 KO) after a delay following the cancellation of his scheduled fight against Callum Smith this month.
The former two-division world champion appeared to be on the verge of a decision victory, but the Cuban collapsed in a disastrous ninth round in which he almost survived a powerful attack.
Chelli kept the pressure going in the final round and after pinning Morrell to the ropes, he landed a series of unanswered punches, forcing the referee to intervene.
Gwynne defeats Majid
Gavin Gwynne breathed novel life into his career when he defeated Khaleel Majid (16-1, 4 KO) by majority decision in a thriller.
Moving to the super lightweight category, Gwynne (19-4-2, 5 KO) put in a ruthless performance and won by two scores of 96-94, defeating the card 95-95 and claiming the vacant WBA International crown.
Undercard remaining
Heavyweight Bakhodir Jalolov (17-0, 5 KO) remained undefeated after forcing a seventh-round retirement over Agron Smakici (21-4, 19 KO).
Former cruiserweight world title challenger Mike Perez (32-3-1, 22 KO) broke Franklin Arinze’s (10-1, 7 KO) undefeated scoring record.
WHAT A SHOT BY UMMATALIEV
#WardleyDubois | Today | @thecoopliveManchester | Buy the PPV next @DAZNBoxing pic.twitter.com/le8wou7JUh
— Queensberry Promotions (@Queensberry) May 9, 2026
Uzbekistan’s super middleweight prospect Javokhir Ummataliev (2-0, 1 KO) won two in a row after a brutal second-round knockout of Damian Drabik (5-3, 5 KO).
Irish super welterweight Bobbi Flood made it two straight professional victories by defeating super welterweight Nathan Darby on points, and Issiah Hamilton-Allen (2-0) did the same against Connor Goulding (6-11), also weighing 154 pounds.
The post Fabio Wardley vs. Daniel Dubois – results and post-fight report appeared first on ProBoxing-Fans.com.
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