The unbeaten WBO champion will make the first defense of his title against Dubois at Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena on May 9. DAZN will stream what is expected to be a shootout between two of the sport’s most devastating finishers either via pay-per-view or to subscribers of its Ultimate plan.

Wardley (20-0-1, 19 KOs) enjoyed a banner 2025 that earned him a nomination for The Ring’s “Fighter of the Year."

The 31-year-old Ipswich native scored a dramatic come-from-behind, 10th-round knockout of Australia’s Justis Huni on June 7. That win in his hometown earned Wardley a fight for the WBO interim title against Joseph Parker on October 25 at O2 Arena in London. Wardley outlasted the New Zealander to score a stirring 11th-round stoppage.

Oleksandr Usyk, who also owns The Ring, WBA, WBC and IBF titles, vacated his WBO crown in November, which led to the organization elevating Wardley.

Dubois (22-3, 21 KOs) credits Wardley for holding off every challenge, but during an episode of DAZN’s “Face Off’ show, the former IBF champion insisted he's “lucky” that The Ring’s No. 1 contender for Usyk’s championship managed to reach this point without going through him.

“No, I think my journey, if anything, has been the opposite of lucky,” Wardley said. “I think I’ve been thrown in the deep end, or at least thrown myself in the deep end, a number of times in terms of challenging for bigger names, bigger opponents and pushing myself when — not to keep harping back to it — everyone said, ‘Oh, look, he’s not that good. He’s not going to go that far.’ All the rest of it.

“It’s no one else forcing me into these situations. It’s me picking them and going, ‘No, I want this person. I want this person. I want Daniel. I want the Joseph Parkers. I want these guys.’ There's no luck about it. It’s pure hard work and commitment to the sport.”

Dubois’ commitment has been questioned time and time again.

The heavy-handed Londoner has been written off as a frontrunner because of the way he came apart against Joe Joyce and during his two defeats to Usyk. To do that is to ignore, however, the way that he battled through tiredness and discomfort to stop Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic.

Wardley hasn’t fallen into the trap of believing that Dubois, ranked No. 4 by The Ring, will break the first time he encounters any resistance.

“I think in that scenario it depends on Daniel and what Daniel turns up on the night and how he feels about the situation and if he feels he can climb his way back or not,” Wardley said. “I think sometimes if he’s in a situation where he doesn't feel like he can, maybe those inner demons get to him a bit and he just doesn’t want it.”