Two Title Fights, Two Time Zones
Saturday gives us a split screen, and for once neither half is filler. At the O2 Arena in London, Daniel Dubois defends the WBO heavyweight title against Fabio Wardley in a rematch of the best heavyweight fight of 2026. Seven hours later and a few thousand miles west, Sebastian Fundora puts his WBC super welterweight belt on the line against an unbeaten mandatory. No exhibition, no crossover circus, no tune-up dressed up as a title fight.
Dubois vs Wardley 2: The Rematch Nobody Had to Be Sold On
On May 9 at Co-op Live in Manchester, Wardley dropped Dubois inside the opening ten seconds and again in the third. Dubois got up both times, took over in the middle rounds and broke Wardley down with the right hand until referee Howard Foster stopped it early in the 11th.
Wardley triggered his rematch clause inside a week, and here we are five months later with no soft landing. The division has other business too: Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua is signed for Cardiff in December, making Saturday a heavyweight eliminator in everything but name.
“I was over-zealous and confident in my power in the first fight,” Wardley said at the final press conference. “I probably believed too much that the right hand would land, but that’s easy to adjust. Once I sniff blood, I’m getting him out of there.”
Dubois was blunter. Asked by Ring Magazine whether he respects Wardley’s power, he said: “I beat him up easier. He ain’t got no power. Punches like a baby.”
What the Numbers Actually Say
The CompuBox numbers from May tell a different story. Dubois outlanded Wardley 179-97 overall, 92-57 on jabs and 87-40 on power punches, and landed 45.8 percent of everything he threw against Wardley’s 27.1 percent. But Wardley put 35.2 percent of his landed punches into the body, against Dubois’s 19.4 percent. Dubois has been knocked down six times as a professional; Wardley has never been down once. All three of Dubois’s defeats came by stoppage, which is exactly the volatility we saw when Filip Hrgovic took the IBF belt off Moses Itauma in August. The odds, though, reflect the first fight more than the tape: Dubois is between -350 and -460 depending on the book, with Wardley out around +275 to +320, a huge shift from May when Dubois went in as a +100 underdog.
My Pick: Dubois by Late Stoppage
I keep going back and forth on this one, and the market is more confident than it should be. Wardley has a real argument: he proved he can hurt Dubois, he never stopped coming, and he has shown he can change his approach. “I see a number of flaws,” he said this week, and he is not wrong about the champion’s footwork.
Wardley’s only path, though, is the right hand landing clean and early. If it does not come early, May repeats itself: Dubois’s jab and body work grind him down, and Wardley absorbs more punishment than any human should to stay upright. Dubois in eight to ten rounds, by stoppage. Same ending, less drama.
Fundora vs Hadribeaj: The Fight Before the Fight He Wants
Fundora (24-1-1, 16 KOs) makes the fourth defense of his WBC super welterweight title at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. The 28-year-old southpaw stands six-foot-six and is coming off a sixth-round stoppage of Keith Thurman in March.
Hadribeaj (23-0-1, 8 KOs) is the mandatory, and his story is unusual. He is Albanian, based in Miami, a former MMA fighter who did not box for pay until he was 25. He earned the shot by beating the previously unbeaten Bakary Samake for the WBC Silver title in May. A win would make him Albania’s first world champion.
“They call me the ‘Albanian Sniper’ because I’m very precise and very calculated,” he said. “Win or no win, I know for sure that I’m going to land.”
Fundora is priced around -650, and he has been honest that this is a fight he has to get through. “Me against Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis is the best fight at 154,” he said. “That’s the fight everyone wants. But we both have fights we have to get through.” Ennis and Josh Kelly have agreed terms for a three-belt unification targeted for the turn of the year, and if that lands, the Fundora-Ennis winner takes the division. Fundora by stoppage in the second half: Hadribeaj has never faced anyone close to this size, and reach is not something you fix with angles.
Figueroa-Kameda and the Charlo Shuffle
The co-main is a proper fight: Brandon Figueroa (27-2-1, 20 KOs) defends the WBA featherweight title against former champion Tomoki Kameda (42-5, 23 KOs), a +300 underdog who has come up short in two previous title shots. Figueroa won the belt by stopping Nick Ball in Liverpool in February, the kind of road win that made the Schofield-Bahdi WBA title fight look routine. The card then lost Jermall Charlo to a training injury, the second time in three months his fight with Koen Mazoudier has collapsed after a visa issue killed the July date in Australia. Former WBA titleholder Armando Resendiz steps in on ten days’ notice, the latest blown date for a 36-year-old who has seen two fights collapse in three months.
The Filipino Corner: Three Title Paths in Four Weeks
On October 29 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, ArAr Andales (19-2-3, 8 KOs) fights Raito Kataoka (2-0, 2 KOs) for the vacant OPBF light flyweight title. Andales has not lost in six years and is ranked No. 9 by the IBF at 108 pounds. Kataoka has just two pro bouts behind him but a 57-1 amateur record and a 2023 Asian Youth gold medal.
Then on November 26 at the Ebara Wave Arena in Ota City, the Philippines gets a double world title shot. Miel Fajardo challenges Masamichi Yabuki for the IBF flyweight crown, and 21-year-old Zyvyr John Medecilo (9-0, 5 KOs) goes after Takeshi Ishii’s WBA minimumweight title in only his tenth professional fight. Ishii won that belt by knocking out Wilfredo Mendez in 65 seconds in September. Medecilo would become the Filipino to win a world title in the fewest bouts.
At home, Regie Suganob came back from Bohol with the win that put him top of the IBO light flyweight rankings, with Pedro Taduran still holding the IBF minimumweight belt. And on October 31 in Riyadh, Carl Jammes Martin (28-0, 21 KOs) meets David Picasso (33-1-1, 18 KOs) in a WBO super bantamweight title eliminator on the Canelo-Mbilli undercard. Picasso’s only loss came against Naoya Inoue in Riyadh last December. Win that, and Martin is next in line at 122 pounds.
The Bottom Line
Two title fights on Saturday, three Filipino title paths in the next four weeks, and a heavyweight division with some direction at last. Set the alarm for 2 a.m. Manila time if you want the London card live. That is the price of following this sport from here, and this weekend it is worth paying.
My card: Dubois inside ten, Fundora inside nine, Figueroa on points. If Wardley proves me wrong, it will be the best kind of wrong.