Fabio Wardley landed 179 punches at 45.8% accuracy. He out-connected his opponent by 82 punches, won the jab, and landed more than double the power shots. By every measure CompuBox tracks, he was the better boxer on Saturday night at Co-op Live Arena.
Daniel Dubois knocked him out in round eleven anyway.
This fight is a masterclass in why boxing will never be reduced to a spreadsheet — and why the numbers, when you dig into them, tell a story every bit as compelling as the finish itself.
| Date | Saturday 9 May 2026 |
| Venue | Co-op Live Arena, Manchester |
| Result | Daniel Dubois W KO Round 11 |
| Title | WBO World Heavyweight Championship |
| Scheduled Rounds | 12 |
| Broadcaster | DAZN PPV |
Let’s be direct: Wardley dominated this fight on the CompuBox data. Not marginally — comprehensively.
He out-landed Dubois 179 to 97 across eleven rounds — connecting on 84% more total punches. His accuracy was 45.8% against Dubois’s 27.1%. The jab, the power shots, the output — every column belongs to the Ipswich heavyweight.
| Dubois | Wardley | |
|---|---|---|
| Total Landed | 97 | 179 |
| Total Thrown | 358 | 391 |
| Accuracy | 27.1% | 45.8% |
| Jabs Landed | 57 | 92 |
| Jab Accuracy | 27.3% | 43.6% |
| Power Landed | 40 | 87 |
| Power Accuracy | 26.8% | 48.3% |
Wardley landed 87 power punches to Dubois’s 40. He was connecting at nearly double the rate on the shots that matter most. If you had handed these numbers to any boxing analyst before the fight and asked them to predict the result, virtually every one would have said Wardley.
The fight’s defining stretch came in the middle rounds, and it wasn’t subtle. Across rounds 3 through 7, Wardley out-landed Dubois 102 to 41 — connecting on 52.0% of his punches while Dubois managed 24.4%. Wardley was landing more than twice as often.
Round 6 was the peak. Wardley threw 56 punches and landed 30 of them — 53.6% accuracy — including 17 power shots from 33 attempts (51.5%). It was the highest single-round output of the night and the kind of performance that, in any other fight, would have the commentators calling it a shutout.
Round 5 told a similar story: 22 from 38 (57.9%), with an exceptional 14 jabs from 24 (58.3%). Wardley’s southpaw-troubling jab was working to perfection, and Dubois — absorbing it all — still refused to buckle.
Round 4 saw Dubois land only 6 from 30 (20%). Wardley responded with 17 from 35 (48.6%), including 9 power shots from 17. By any conventional metric, Dubois was being outboxed. The scorecards, had they been needed, would have been very one-sided.
There is a different story inside the same numbers, though, if you know where to look.
In round 8, something shifted. Dubois threw only 28 punches — his second-lowest output of the fight — but landed 11 of them at 39.3% accuracy, including 9 from 19 jabs at a remarkable 47.4%. It was his most precise round of the night, a moment where the chaos compressed into something more controlled.
His round 9 was his highest-volume effort: 16 from 58 (27.6%), throwing relentlessly while Wardley kept countering. But the accuracy told the truth — Dubois was loading up, throwing more, and trusting that sooner or later one of those shots would detonate.
When you step back from the round-by-round breakdown, the picture of Dubois becomes clear: a fighter who absorbs punishment better than anyone in the division, who doesn’t panic when losing, and who requires only one correct shot in any given moment to change the entire complexion of a contest. He landed 40 power punches all night. Wardley landed 87. But Dubois’s 40 included one that Wardley couldn’t recover from.
The brief CompuBox snapshot of round 11 — which ended mid-round — is almost poetic in its cruelty. Wardley landed 4 from 5 punches (80%), including 2 power shots at 100% accuracy. Dubois managed 2 from 3 (66.7%).
Wardley was still winning the stats when he went down.
That single exchange — two landed by Dubois, four by Wardley, fight over — encapsulates everything about this match. Wardley was the better, busier, more accurate boxer across 11 rounds. Dubois was the harder puncher, the more dangerous man in any single moment, and the fighter who never needed to be winning to be threatening.
| Daniel Dubois | Fabio Wardley | |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 23-3 (21 KOs) | 20-1-1 (19 KOs) |
| Age | 27 | 30 |
| Height | 6’5” / 196 cm | 6’5” / 196 cm |
| Reach | 78” / 198 cm | 78” / 198 cm |
| Stance | Orthodox | Orthodox |
| Nationality | English | English |
Daniel Dubois — last 5 fights
| Result | Opponent | Method | Rnd |
|---|---|---|---|
| W | Fabio Wardley | KO | 11 |
| L | Oleksandr Usyk | KO | 5 |
| W | Anthony Joshua | KO | 5 |
| W | Filip Hrgovic | TKO | 8 |
| W | Jarrell Miller | TKO | 10 |
Fabio Wardley — last 5 fights
| Result | Opponent | Method | Rnd |
|---|---|---|---|
| W | Joseph Parker | TKO | 11 |
| W | Justis Huni | KO | 10 |
| W | Frazer Clarke | TKO | 1 |
| D | Frazer Clarke | D | 12 |
| W | David Adeleye | TKO | 7 |
For Dubois, this is a third world title reign and a statement performance unlike anything in his recent career. Where others would have crumbled under Wardley’s unrelenting pressure, he survived, stayed dangerous, and delivered. Two losses to Usyk remain on the record, but the heavyweight division’s landscape has shifted. A potential rematch with Usyk, or a unification fight, suddenly carries a very different weight.
For Wardley, the first defeat of his career ends a 21-fight unbeaten run that had taken him from prospect to world champion. He was, by any objective measure, the better boxer on Saturday night — and that is not nothing. At 30, with the physical tools and the punch stats to back him up, there is no reason a rematch or another major fight cannot be made. The data will be cold comfort tonight, but it tells the story of a fighter who genuinely belongs at the very top of the heavyweight division.
Sometimes, in this sport, the man who wins every round loses the fight. That’s boxing — and it’s why Dubois remains one of the most dangerous men on the planet.
Also on the Co-op Live card: Zak Chelli vs David Morrell — fight review · Jack Rafferty vs Ekow Essuman — fight review
How did Daniel Dubois win the WBO Heavyweight title? Dubois stopped Fabio Wardley by knockout in round 11 of their WBO World Heavyweight Championship fight at Co-op Live Arena, Manchester, on Saturday 9 May 2026.
Did Wardley win on the scorecards before being stopped? The CompuBox data strongly suggests Wardley was ahead on points. He out-landed Dubois 179 to 97 across eleven rounds at 45.8% accuracy compared to Dubois’s 27.1%, winning virtually every round on the stats.
How many punches did Wardley land in the fight? Wardley landed 179 punches from 391 thrown — an accuracy of 45.8%. He landed 87 power punches (48.3%) and 92 jabs (43.6%), outperforming Dubois in every CompuBox category.
Is this Dubois’s first world heavyweight title? No — this is Dubois’s second world heavyweight title reign. He previously held the WBO belt and adds it back to his collection by stopping Wardley in round 11.
What were the pre-fight odds for Dubois vs Wardley? Both fighters were priced at 9/10 (−110) — essentially a coin flip, with no clear favourite in what was widely regarded as a genuine 50/50 fight.
What is Fabio Wardley’s record after the Dubois fight? Wardley’s professional record stands at 20 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw (19 KOs) following the defeat to Dubois — his first career loss in 22 professional bouts.
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