Dubois Eyes Hrgovic Rematch — But First, Wardley Wants His Belt Back

Daniel Dubois has a rematch in front of him and another one already sketched out behind it. The WBO heavyweight champion, 23-3 (22 KO), defends against Fabio Wardley on October 17 — but the 28-year-old is already talking up a second crack at Filip Hrgovic in a potential unification bout.

It's a confident bit of forward-planning from a fighter who won his belt the hard way. Back in May, Dubois climbed off the canvas twice to stop Wardley in the 11th, taking the WBO strap in a fight that looked lost inside the opening 10 seconds.

That's not an exaggeration. Wardley, 20-1-1 (19 KO), dropped Dubois within the first 10 seconds of the contest, then put him down again with a right hand in the third. On paper, the champion was in serious trouble. In practice, the second knockdown seems to have done him a favour.

The Fight That Made Him

From round three onward, Dubois flipped it. He leaned on a sharper, busier jab, controlled distance, and let his technical edge do the work while Wardley's early fire faded. By the 11th, the finish had the feel of inevitability rather than drama.

Wardley didn't waste time feeling sorry about it. He triggered the rematch clause almost immediately, which is why he's getting his shot back so quickly. For a man who came within a right hand of a career-defining upset, that's the smart move — he was closer than the scorecards will ever show.

The question for Dubois is whether he's already looking past that. He's made clear his focus is retaining the title first, but he's not hiding his bigger ambition either: to be the last man standing in a heavyweight division that's suddenly reshuffling at the top.

The Hrgovic Angle

That's where Filip Hrgovic comes in. Hrgovic claimed the IBF belt last Saturday, stopping the previously unbeaten Moses Itauma in the ninth round. Itauma, 14-0 (12 KO) and ranked among the division's most hyped prospects, had never tasted defeat before that night.

Dubois has history with Hrgovic. He stopped him inside eight rounds in 2024 — but that result carries an asterisk in his own mind. The fight was ultra-competitive right up until Hrgovic was pulled out with bad cuts over both eyes. It was closer than an eighth-round stoppage suggests.

So Dubois watched the Itauma fight with more than casual interest. He told Queensberry Promotions he wanted a firsthand look at how Hrgovic operates now, precisely because a second meeting could be on the table. His stated ambition is simple: collect the belts and outlast everyone.

What Comes Next

The sequencing matters. Nothing about a Hrgovic unification is real until Dubois handles Wardley, and October 17 is far from a formality — the first fight proved that. A repeat of that opening round and the WBO title changes hands.

For Wardley, this is the shot to rewrite a night where he had the champion hurt and let him escape. For Hrgovic, freshly minted as IBF titleholder, a Dubois rematch offers both a marquee unification and the chance to correct a result he'll argue was never settled cleanly.

Dubois is right that the picture is clarifying fast. Two belts, three names, and a division sorting itself out through the ropes. But the last-man-standing talk only holds if he gets past the man he already beat once — and who nearly beat him in return.