Wardley vs Dubois Predictions: ‘Dynamite’ targets the WBO against Fabio

WBO heavyweight champion Fabio Wardley defends his crown against former IBF titlist Daniel Dubois this Saturday, 9 May. The Co-op Arena in Manchester will play host to the contest while DAZN PPV and Ultimate will screen the card live on their platform.

Read on for my Wardley vs Dubois predictions ahead of the first world heavyweight title contest of 2026.

Wardley vs Dubois Odds

The champion comes in at 10/11 to win while Dubois is breathing down his neck at 1/1. You can back the draw at 18/1.

Wardley vs Dubois Fight Preview

This fight has everything you could ask for from a Saturday night’s entertainment. A prestigious prize. The eyes of the world. State of the art surroundings. A healthy dose of violence. Boxing, eh?

The setting is the Eastlands spaceship they call the Co-op Arena. The prize is the WBO heavyweight championship of the world. Fans all over the globe will be watching because where the heavyweight belt goes, the eyeballs follow. The violence? Try this on for size.

Wardley is 20-0-1 with 19 knockouts on his ledger. Dubois is 22-3, with 21 brutal finishes. This one could be over quick, folks.

Neither man was supposed to be here. Dubois’ goose was cooked after his first loss to Oleksandr Usyk, putting aside the low blow that Frank Warren and friends think landed on Usyk’s belt line. But ‘Dynamite’ exploded with vengeance, stopping Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic and, inconceivably at the time, Anthony Joshua.

The latter shock arrived in the fifth round of Dubois’ first IBF heavyweight title defence, having seen his interim status upgraded after finishing Hrgovic. Dubois became a superstar under those Wembley Stadium lights. But he’ll wish he never went back under the arch.

That’s because WBC, WBA, The Ring, lineal and then-WBO boss Usyk slaughtered him at the same venue in their rematch. Dubois came in riding the most impressive run of any heavyweight in the division. He left a stoppage loser as Usyk stood tall as a two-time, but never-beaten, undisputed champion.

But this is what Dubois does. He bangs his head off the ceiling, growls and keeps trying to break through it. He did it after losing in 2020 to Joe Joyce. He did it the first time Usyk finished him. Daniel Dubois is determined. Those early career allegations he is a quitter look stupider by the day.

Quitters don’t knock on Fabio Wardley’s door. Like Dubois lifting his IBF strap high after the Joshua shock, Big Fab isn’t supposed to be here. Frazer Clarke was supposed to outbox him. You can still find the horrifying pictures of the Olympic bronze medallist’s fractured jaw after Wardley, the former white collar brawler, got his hands on him in the first round of their rematch, after a thrilling draw seven months before.

David Adeleye was supposed to have too much polish for Wardley. TKO7. Justis Huni was expected to offer too much slickness and acumen. KO10. Joseph Parker, the former WBO champion, had beaten Zhilei Zhang, Deontay Wilder and Martin Bakole in consecutive fights. Wardley was his stepping stone to reach the promised land against then-undisputed champ Usyk. TKO11. Do you see now why you don’t go against Fabio Wardley?

The Parker upset netted Wardley the WBO interim belt. Usyk has elected to fight kickboxer Rico Verhoeven in a pointless Egypt exercise that the WBC are egregiously sanctioning for their world title. So Wardley saw his interim recognition boosted to the real thing. 

A champion always wants to win the title in the ring, but let’s face it, if Usyk’s pyramid of utter bollocks had been ratified a couple of weeks sooner then Parker vs Wardley would have been for the full WBO title anyway. Make no mistake, this is a proper world title attraction. Certainly more appetising than Usyk wasting all our time later this month. 

Two knockout punchers squaring off for the big belt. And, shock of shocks in 2026, a high-class fight between two world-level Brits takes place in their home country, rather than Saudi Arabia. Keep the circus, Turki. We’ll take the white-knuckle heavyweight tear-up, thanks pal.