The 29-year-old flooring Wardley early earlier than the referee stops the struggle within the second spherical
Daniel Dubois celebrates after successful his WBO world heavyweight title struggle in opposition to Fabio Wardley. Picture: REUTERS
LONDON:
‘Dynamite’ Daniel Dubois retained his WBO heavyweight belt with a one-sided and devastating second-round stoppage of fellow Briton Fabio Wardley of their world title rematch on Saturday.
The 29-year-old champion made a storming begin at London’s O2 Enviornment and Wardley’s legs went from underneath him for a depend inside 17 seconds of the opening bell as Dubois floored him with a straight proper.
Wardley, 31, beat the depend and will have been stopped on the finish of the primary spherical when he took an extra brutal pounding on the ropes however was saved by the bell.
There was no escape from the onslaught of blows within the second with Dubois choosing up the place he left off and Wardley taking punch after punch till the towel was thrown in and referee Steve Grey introduced the struggle to a detailed.
“Fabio is a superb warrior, coming in for a second time, but it surely was my time and my period,” mentioned ‘Triple D’, by no means a person for lengthy speeches. “I had my intentions, unhealthy intentions, from the start.
“Our again was in opposition to the wall the primary time, this time we simply needed to go on the market and present that we imply enterprise and that is what we did tonight.”
HRGOVIC READY TO PUT HIS TITLE ON THE LINE
Dubois dealt Wardley his first defeat as an expert when he got here again from two knockdowns, the primary after 16 seconds, to take the title within the eleventh spherical of a thunderous and bloody conflict in Manchester final Could.
Wardley, promoted to WBO champion final November after Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk vacated the title, was acclaimed for his braveness and refusal to offer in first time round however on Saturday he regarded a shell of the person seen in Manchester.
He now has a 20-2-1 report with Dubois on 24 wins with three defeats.
“I’ve all the time thrown myself in with one of the best rivals on the market, the hardest, the most important, hardest, meanest guys round. There isn’t any disgrace in testing your self in opposition to one of the best,” he mentioned.
“Daniel’s a testomony to developing brief and coming once more, I will be trying to do the very same factor.
“Boxing is a sport of nice margins. It may be achieved and over in a spherical or two or it will possibly go into an enormous previous conflict prefer it was final time.”
Dubois was beforehand the IBF champion, dropping it to Usyk in London in July final yr earlier than coming again to take the WBO belt from Wardley.
Croatian Filip Hrgovic, the IBF champion after beating Britain’s Moses Itauma in August, was ringside on Saturday and challenged Dubois to a struggle with each belts on the road.
“It was a straightforward evening for Daniel. He did job, fast win. So he is able to struggle me in March, proper Daniel?,” mentioned Hrgovic, earlier than promoter Frank Warren steered he may need to take care of different candidates first.
Dubois beat the Croatian in June 2024 to take the interim IBF belt and was then upgraded to champion when Usyk vacated his title.
“I wish to have a rematch with him, I wish to get my previous belt again and rule the division,” mentioned Dubois.