Fabio Wardley weighed 248.3 pounds at Friday’s weigh-in at Spitalfields Market, the heaviest of his career. Daniel Dubois came in at 253.9. Those two numbers tell you exactly what both men learned in May.
They fight Saturday at The O2 in London for Dubois’ WBO heavyweight title, on DAZN, billed as “Run It Back.”
What happened the first time
On May 9 in Manchester, Wardley dropped Dubois about ten seconds into the first round. He dropped him again in the third. Dubois should have been finished and was not.
Instead Dubois recovered, took the center of the ring, and Wardley began to fade. Significant swelling closed in around Wardley’s right eye. The referee stopped it in the eleventh, and Dubois became a two-time world heavyweight champion.
It is one of the best heavyweight fights of the year and a strong Fight of the Year candidate. It is also a fight Wardley was winning for three rounds and lost over the next eight.
The weight is a confession
Wardley was 242 pounds in May. He is 248.3 now, a gain of 6.3 pounds. Dubois was 251.75 and is up about 2.15.
You do not add six pounds by accident ten days out from a world title rematch. Wardley and his team looked at a fight he lost because he ran out of gas in the back half and decided the answer was more mass to absorb punishment.
That is a defensible read and a risky one. The reason Wardley had Dubois on the floor twice inside three rounds is that he starts fast and hits extremely hard early. Six extra pounds may buy him rounds nine through twelve. It may also cost him the explosiveness that nearly ended the fight in round one.
He activated the rematch clause himself, so he chose this. The weigh-in words were about what you would expect. Wardley promised to simply seek and destroy and told the room his plan was revenge by knockout. Dubois said he was ready to go to war.
The records and the resumes
Dubois is 23-3 with 22 knockouts. He lost twice to Oleksandr Usyk and rebuilt himself into a champion through Wardley.
Wardley is 20-1-1 with 19 knockouts and turned 31 last December. His route to a world title was fast and almost entirely through regional and interim belts: English champion in 2020, British in 2022, WBO European and Commonwealth in 2023, WBA Continental, then WBA interim with a knockout of Justis Huni in June 2025, then WBO interim by stopping Joseph Parker in October 2025, promoted to full WBO champion that November. He held the belt for under six months before Dubois took it.
The undercard
Louie O’Doherty, 12-0, defends his British and Commonwealth titles against Michael Gomez Jnr, 23-2, both at about 134 pounds. Bakhodir Jalolov, the unbeaten 17-0 Olympic gold medalist, weighed 255.12 against Solomon Dacres, 10-1, at 242.9. Adam Olaniyan, 4-0, faces Dan Garber. Nelson Birchall, 12-0, meets Levi Giles.
No purse figures have been reported for either main event fighter.
The pick here is simple. Wardley gained weight to fix the last eight rounds of a fight he lost. Dubois gained two pounds and did not need to fix anything, because he already proved he can take Wardley’s best and still be standing in the eleventh. Advantage, champion.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.