Daniel Dubois and Fabio Wardley both made it through Friday’s weigh-in in London with no drama, which means the WBO heavyweight title rematch is locked in for Saturday, Oct. 17, at The O2. Dubois, the champion, scaled 253.9 pounds. Wardley came in at 248.3, according to MMA Fighting, and that’s six pounds heavier than he weighed for their first fight in May.
So the challenger added some mass, and the champ is still the bigger man by a little more than five pounds. The two had one last face-off after stepping off the scale, and Bloody Elbow described it as brief and intense. That’s about what you’d expect from two guys who spent 11 rounds trying to take each other’s heads off five months ago.
What happened the first time
The first meeting on May 9 was getting called a Fight of the Year contender almost immediately, and it earned that talk. Wardley put Dubois down twice early, and Dubois kept getting back up. He took over late, and referee Howard Foster waved it off in Round 11 for a Dubois TKO. That gave Dubois the WBO belt and made him a two-time heavyweight champion. He’d held the IBF title before, per MMA Fighting.
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Saturday is Dubois’ first defense of that WBO strap and the 27th fight of his pro career, Bloody Elbow noted. It streams on DAZN PPV, and Frank Warren is promoting.
Wardley spent fight week telling everyone he’d learned from letting Dubois off the hook. At Thursday’s final press conference in Manchester, he went through both knockdowns one at a time. On the one in the first 10 seconds, he said “I let that go a bit shy.” On the one in Round 3: “I let him off the hook a bit easy there. But there’s no way this time. Once I sniff blood he’s gone. He’s getting out of there.”
He also predicted a short night, telling the room he figured everyone at the top table could agree the rematch won’t go the distance and will probably end pretty quickly.
If Dubois wins, he’s 2-0 in the series and moves on. If Wardley wins, MMA Mania pointed out, a trilogy is the obvious next step.
The undercard scales
The co-feature has Louie O’Doherty (134.1) against Michael Gomez Jr. (134.3) for the British and Commonwealth lightweight titles. The weirdest number of the day belongs to undefeated heavyweight prospect Adam Olaniyan, who outweighed Dan Garber (223.1) by 27 pounds, per MMA Fighting. Bakhodir Jalolov (255.1) has more than 12 pounds on Solomon Dacres (242.8). Nelson Birchall (134.1) and Levi Giles (134.6) both landed right on the lightweight mark.
Here’s my read. Wardley putting on six pounds tells you exactly how he plans to fight. His best work in May came in the first three rounds, Dubois’ best work came at the end, and a heavier Wardley is betting he can finish it before the late rounds roll around again. That’s a reasonable plan with one obvious problem. Dubois has already shown he can eat Wardley’s best shots, get up off the canvas twice, and still be the fresher man in Round 11. Extra weight helps a fighter hit harder for six minutes and costs him in the eleventh, so if Wardley doesn’t get his finish early, I’d want to see how those six pounds look in Round 8 before I put a dime on him. The first bell goes Saturday night at The O2.
