Just five months after a brutal 11-round heavyweight thriller between Daniel Dubois and Fabio Wardley, the British duo are set to run it back.
Dubois and Wardley will rematch for the WBO heavyweight ***** le on Oct. 17 at the O2 Arena in London, Frank Warren's Queensberry Promotions announced Saturday during the Moses Itauma vs. Filip Hrgovic broadcast.
Uncrowned has round-by-round coverage of Itauma vs. Hrgovic.
DAZN pay-per-view will stream the show.
Dubois was knocked down in Rounds 1 and 3 by Wardley in their first meeting, but he weathered the storm and dominated down the stretch for a TKO victory in the penultimate frame. The first Dubois vs. Wardley clash is generally considered the frontrunner for 2026's Fight of the Year.

#dubois #wardley #round #itauma

The artists behind a large sand drawing on Skegness beach say they hope it will raise awareness of the town's role in the Tour of Britain men's cycle race.
Work on the artwork, which recreated a tour poster, began at 04:00 BST on Thursday.
Jamie Wardley, creative director of Sand In Your Eye, said: "It took about three-and-a-half hours for them to make it, which is pretty fast to make such a big picture. To see somebody making something is quite special."
Stage one of the event will start and end in Lincoln. The second stage, on Thursday 3 September, will start in Boston and finish in Skegness.
Wardley said work on the sand art was due to start on Thursday afternoon, but the timing was changed due to the weather forecast.

#tour #work #stage #make

LONDON (AP) — Former world heavyweight champion Joseph Parker argued to British anti-doping authorities that his nutritionist's cocaine use caused a positive drug test after his bout with Fabio Wardley last October.
Parker, who lost the Oct. 25 fight at O2 Arena in London, had been provisionally suspended after urine tests overseen by UK Anti-Doping showed traces of cocaine in his system.
UKAD said Thursday it imposed a three-month ban which was deemed served because the 34-year-old New Zealander had been suspended since late November.
Parker is free to fight again after the anti-doping organization accepted that "any ingestion of cocaine by Mr. Parker occurred out-of-competition only and in a context unrelated to sport performance." It noted that "cocaine is prohibited in-competition only."
Parker had told investigators he "did not knowingly or intentionally use cocaine" and alleged the positive test "was the result of his exposure to cocaine from use by a nutritionist he employed in preparation for the bout," UKAD's decision read.

#fight

A failed drug test threatened to derail the career of former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker. But a decision issued Thursday by UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) confirmed that Parker has been cleared to fight and can now continue his run toward a second world **** le.
New Zealand's Parker returned an adverse **** ytical finding for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, in a Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency (VADA) drug test conducted hours after losing his WBO interim **** le at the hands of Fabio Wardley this past October in London.
Cocaine is a stimulant and therefore considered performance-enhancing when taken in-competition. Parker was facing a ban of up to two years for the presence of the substance in his system. The former champion denied knowingly or intentionally using the drug.
Fabio Wardley stunned Joseph Parker with a late knockout to win in Round 11 at The O2 Arena on October 25, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
Parker argued that the presence of traces of cocaine in his system was due to the regular use of the substance by a nutritionist he employed for the bout.

#cocaine #fabio

Joseph Parker's recent drug ban was caused by "contamination" from his "nutritionist", UK Anti-Doping (Ukad) has said, after the boxer's cocaine suspension was lifted this week.
After suffering a controversial stoppage loss to Fabio Wardley in October, traces of cocaine were found in a test given to the Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency by Parker.
The test was taken in the hours after Parker's 11th-round loss at London's O2 Arena, with which he lost the interim WBO heavyweight belt, but the result was only published in the weeks thereafter.
Joseph Parker (left) during his loss to Fabio Wardley in October (Getty)
Parker, 34, denied taking any banned substances and insisted that he does not take performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). Despite cocaine being a recreational drug and not a PED, taking it can lead to a multiple-year ban for a boxer.

#parker #october #drug

The heavyweight landscape has rarely looked so British.
Oleksandr Usyk's decision to relinquish the WBA, IBF and WBC ****** les has opened the door for a new era and UK heavyweights could not be better placed.
Across the four major sanctioning bodies - WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF - seven fighters from the nation sit in the top 10 of their rankings.
WBO champion Daniel Dubois is the only one in possession of a ****** le, with Fabio Wardley ranked number four after losing to his fellow Briton in May.
Rising star Moses Itauma, former world champions Tyson Fury - ranked number one with the WBC - and Anthony Joshua, British champion Richard Riakporhe are the other names.

No party before Dubois faces Wardley - Charles

Trainer Don Charles guaranteed Daniel Dubois' team will not be hosting a party before Saturday's fight against WBO heavyweight champion Fabio Wardley in Manchester.
Dubois, 28, arrived for July's fight with Oleksandr Usyk at around 20:15 BST - less than two hours before his ringwalk - after reports that a gathering had been held at his house.
The Briton was stopped in the fifth round, losing his IBF ******* le, and his team subsequently held an "internal inquest" as to why the party was allowed to happen.
A similar event had been held prior to Dubois' victory over Anthony Joshua in September 2024, when he knocked out the former champion in the ninth round.
"It's not ideal to have a gathering on the day of the fight," Charles told BBC Radio 5 Live's Boxing with Steve Bunce podcast.

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