Why a Wardley Fight Is the Wrong Move for Dubois Right Now

Interest is building around who Fabio Wardley will face in the first defence of his WBO heavyweight title.

Wardley was elevated to full champion after Oleksandr Usyk vacated the belt, and his team has been aiming for an April return. Before that elevation, Wardley stopped Joseph Parker in the eleventh round last October to win the interim title, a win that changed how he’s viewed at heavyweight.

With no mandatory challenger in place yet, the first defence is expected to be a voluntary, which gives Wardley and Queensberry time to look at the options.

One name that keeps coming up is Daniel Dubois.

Dubois’ new trainer, Tony Sims, has said he wants Wardley next. On the surface, the fight is easy to make. Both fighters are with Queensberry Promotions, so there are no promotional issues, and it would be a big all-British fight that draws attention.

The problem is timing.

Dubois is coming off a fifth-round knockout loss to Usyk in July 2025. There were also rumours late last year that a minor injury pushed his return back from December into early 2026. Whether those reports were serious or not, the bigger issue is what kind of shape Dubois is in right now, both physically and mentally.

This would be a risky fight for him to take. Dubois has already been stopped twice by Usyk, a fighter who isn’t known for knocking people out. That matters when the next opponent is someone like Wardley, who is a straight-ahead puncher and looks to do damage early. Questions about Dubois’ punch resistance haven’t gone away, and this wouldn’t be a forgiving fight to test them in.

Dubois has a new trainer and still needs time to tighten his defence and settle into changes. Jumping straight into another heavy-hitting fight could undo that work before it really starts.

From Wardley’s side, it looks very different. If Dubois is willing to take it, this would be an ideal first defence. It’s a big domestic matchup, it pays well in the short term, and it’s a fight Wardley can win against an opponent coming off a knockout.

There are other names in the mix. Fighters like Filip Hrgovic, Zhilei Zhang, and Derek Chisora have all been mentioned. Wardley has also spoken about wanting a domestic fight with Anthony Joshua, though that depends on Joshua’s own plans.

Another name to watch is Moses Itauma. If Itauma wins his January 24 fight, he could move toward mandatory status later in the year. That doesn’t look immediate, though. His trainer Ben Davison has said in the past he wouldn’t want to match Itauma with Wardley unless it was for something much bigger.

For now, nothing is set. Dubois against Wardley is a real possibility, but it’s far from done. The choice comes down to whether Dubois’ team thinks the risk is worth it, and whether Wardley wants to open his reign against someone still trying to put himself back together.

An announcement isn’t expected yet, but the direction should become clearer as April gets closer.