WBO heavyweight champion Fabio Wardley and former WBA and IBF titleholder Daniel Dubois will take the stage one last time ahead of this Sat. night’s (May 9, 2026) championship main event inside Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, England. Today’s final press conference streams LIVE at 9 a.m. ET in the embedded video above.
As usual, fighter face offs will follow the media proceedings later today.
“I think you’ll see a lot of what you’ve seen before when opponents have connected,” Wardley said about the
power of Dubois, who sports 21 knockouts in 22 wins. “Either I give you a little nod to say, ‘Yeah, cool. If that’s the game we’re playing, no worries. Let’s go.’ Or look, I’ll shake it off and come back with my own flurry of punches. You’re not just going to get one free shot off and I’m going to run away and I’m going to be on the other side of the ring. I’m going to turn around and go for you one way or another. You’re not going to get away with a free shot and I’m going to get hit and be in awe, ‘Oh god, this guy hits well hard, I’m going to back out of the situation.’ I’m going to knuckle up and come after you.”
Wardley (20-0-1, 19 KOs) won the interim strap in Oct. 2025 with a technical knockout win over Joseph Parker (see it again here). He was later elevated to undisputed champion after Oleksandr Usyk relinquished the title just one month later (full details here). As for Dubois (22-3, 21 KOs), he coughed up his IBF title to the aforementioned Usyk back in July 2025, which was his second defeat to the undefeated Ukrainian (video here). Prior to that crushing defeat, Dubois secured a stunning stoppage win over fellow Brit Anthony Joshua.
“Going into a fight like this, I’ve done 10-rounders, 12 rounds, big fights, big occasions,” Wardley added. “I’ve ticked off all the milestones, so nothing’s like a deer-in-headlight situation where I’m new to it.”
To see who else is boxing this weekend on DAZN check out the finalized “Wardley vs. Dubois” lineup here.
