In May, Daniel Dubois won the WBO heavyweight championship with a stoppage win over Fabio Wardley. On Saturday, the pair will run it back in London (2 p.m. ET, DAZN PPV). That rematch highlights boxing's weekend schedule, though it's not the only world title fight on the menu.
In the first meeting between Dubois and Wardley, Wardley scored knockdowns of Dubois in the first and third rounds. Despite that early success, the real story of the fight was the toughness Wardley showed across the rest of the fight, absorbing a tremendous beating from Dubois.
Dubois was able to take advantage of Wardley's limited offensive approach and land crushing right hands round after round. All Wardley could do in response was go back to the well with the same looping one-two combinations that had produced the earlier knockdowns.
Wardley started boxing late in life, competing in white-collar shows from age 21 before turning professional. He found plenty of success, including late comeback knockout wins over Justis Huni and Joseph Parker in interim title fights before being promoted to full champion ahead of the Dubois fight.
Dubois came up in a more traditional fashion, working through the amateurs before turning pro. That seasoning provided the skills and knowledge that allowed Dubois to make further adjustments and become a more dynamic fighter after he tasted Wardley's power early on.
"I enjoy inflicting pain and putting that chaos on the other guy, what's inside me, and the pain, you know, I put it on him," Dubois said this week. "That's how boxing is, it releases your, whatever you have inside you, it's an outlet, isn't it? So, yeah, I'm looking forward to it."
Dubois has three losses in his career, all by knockout, including a pair to Oleksandr Usyk. Beyond those losses, Dubois has picked up many big wins, including over Anthony Joshua in a British megafight in 2024.
Prediction: There's no reason to think the rematch plays out much differently than the first bout. That is especially true with the rematch coming so shortly after the first meeting. As mentioned, Wardley took a hellacious beating in that fight, and since then he has had to recover as much as possible and hasn't had much time to add new wrinkles to his game. Dubois is the better fighter, and as long as he can avoid a pure knockout shot, he should be able to put a hurting on Wardley again. Pick: Daniel Dubois via TKO7
Sebastian Fundora vs. Ermal Hadribeaj
The other big fight on Saturday takes place in Las Vegas, where Sebastian Fundora will defend his WBC junior middleweight title against Ermal Hadribeaj (8 p.m. ET, DAZN).
Fundora has developed into a really good fighter after starting his career seen by many as a sideshow, with his 6-foot-6 frame towering over opponents, but a tendency to fight toe-to-toe rather than at a range that best utilized his reach. As things seemed to have been moving in the right direction, Fundora suffered a shocking knockout loss to Brian Mendoza.
Fundora rebounded from the Mendoza loss with a split-decision win over Tim Tszyu that was largely attributed to Tszyu suffering a nasty cut early in the fight as a result of a Fundora elbow. Fundora erased all doubt about that win two fights later, stopping Tszyu just seven rounds into the fight.
In his most recent fight, Fundora took just six rounds to stop Keith Thurman in their March bout.
Hadribeaj isn't a big-name fighter, and Fundora is far and away the best opponent he will have faced, but at 23-0-1, Hadribeaj has yet to suffer a loss. His most recent fight was a career-best win, taking a decision win over previously undefeated Bakary Samake.
That said, Hadribeaj has only scored eight knockouts in his career, so he likely doesn't have the power to keep Fundora off of him as the fight wears on.
