Daniel Dubois and Fabio Wardley went nose to nose one final time Thursday, closing out the last press conference before Saturday’s heavyweight title rematch with a staredown that MMA Mania posted in full. The presser was held Oct. 15 in Manchester, England, two days before the pair run it back on DAZN pay-per-view.
If the rematch is half as violent as the original, nobody is going to ask for a refund.
Five months ago in London, Wardley put Dubois on the canvas twice, once in the opening seconds and again in the third round. He still left without the belt. Dubois survived both trips to the floor, kept coming, and scored a late knockout to take the WBO heavyweight strap, as Adam Guillen recapped for MMA Mania.
That kind of loss eats at a fighter, and Wardley isn’t hiding from it. Asked about the first fight, he owned the missed chances instead of blaming the referee, the cut man or the weather.
“Adjustments will be made, a more clinical performance will be done, and I will capitalize on the moments I had early on the fight the first time around,” Wardley said.
He was blunt about the third-round knockdown in particular. “I let him off the hook a bit easy there,” he said, before promising a different ending. “But there’s no way this time. Once I sniff blood he’s gone. He’s getting out of there.”
Wardley also predicted the rematch won’t go the distance and will probably end early, adding that he figured everyone sitting at the top table could agree on both points.
The source coverage of the presser didn’t carry a response from Dubois, so the champion’s side of the trash talk will have to wait for fight night. Dubois is the one with the belt and the one who finished the job last time, which buys him the right to say very little.
The rematch headlines Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026, on DAZN PPV, with the WBO title on the line.
My take: I’ll take Wardley at his word on the distance part. Two heavyweights, two knockdowns and a late stoppage the first time around is not a recipe for 12 rounds of jabbing. What I like is that he answered the question straight. He told a room full of reporters he went shy with a hurt champion in front of him, which is a rare thing for a fighter to admit on fight week. Admitting it is the easy part, though. Dubois already showed he can eat Wardley’s best shots, get up twice and keep swinging until the other guy breaks, and Wardley has to prove he can close the show on a man who refuses to stay down.
