Daniel Dubois makes the first defense of his WBO heavyweight title on Saturday night when he faces Fabio Wardley for a second time at The O2 in London. The card is promoted by Queensberry Promotions and airs on DAZN pay-per-view, with ring walks for the main event expected around 10:30 pm in London, which works out to roughly 5:30 pm on the East Coast.

The first fight needed no selling and neither does this one. On May 9 at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, Wardley dropped Dubois inside the opening seconds and put him down again on one knee in the third round. Dubois got up both times, took the fight over in the middle rounds and broke Wardley down with the right hand until referee Howard Foster stepped in early in the 11th with Wardley still on his feet and still refusing to go down. The win made Dubois a two-time world champion after he previously held the IBF belt, and it ended Wardley’s reign in his first defense.

Wardley triggered his rematch clause less than a week later. Frank Warren, who promotes both men, announced the return in the ring at The O2 in late August. “October 17 here at the O2, here in London, the rematch. One of the greatest heavyweight fights we’ve seen in years,” Warren said. “This is going to be the rematch of the champion here, Daniel Dubois, against the former champion, Fabio Wardley. You are going to see a brilliant fight on October 17. Be here for it.”

Dubois enters at 23-3 with 22 knockouts. Wardley, the former white-collar boxer from Ipswich who stopped Joseph Parker in the 11th round at this same building last October to win the interim WBO title and was then elevated to full champion when Oleksandr Usyk vacated, is 20-1-1 with 19 knockouts. The only blemish on his record before May was a draw with Frazer Clarke.

Dubois, 29, has spent fight week insisting the first fight was not as close as the two knockdowns suggested. “I was coming off a defeat last time, so I was a bit nervous and stuff. It is just a fresh start for me now,” he said at the launch press conference. “I feel even better, with a smoother training camp this time and I will be ready for war.”

He added: “I have got to put things right this time, be sharp off the mark, more precise, and take him out in style this time. Just raise my level now, raise my game and break him down again. I am going to come in as champion and just demonstrate my skill and my pedigree what I have.”

Asked by Ring Magazine whether he respects Wardley’s power, Dubois did not leave much room for interpretation. “Yeah, I beat him up easier. He ain’t got no power, so I’ll just break him down easier,” he said. “He hasn’t got no power, no. Punches like a baby.”

In a separate sitdown with the British press, Dubois went further. “He’s not good enough to adapt, so he’ll do the same thing as he did in the first fight,” he said. “I know what I’m going to do to him will be a lot worse than the first fight.”

Wardley, 31, has heard it all and seems amused by it. “I think he needs to pay attention to what he says because he did an interview the other day where he says I was the hardest puncher he’s ever been in the ring with,” he said. “It’s fight week and with Daniel you get a different personality, a different persona comes out. We all know and saw what happened, and again, like I said, I didn’t even fully connect and he hit the ground twice so it’s a lot of waffle.”

On the first fight itself, Wardley has been unusually candid about where it got away from him. “I felt like I was a victim of my own success in them early stages,” he said. “I just got trigger-happy, got carried away with just trying to launch that right hand, to get the fight finished up.”

“It was me that triggered the rematch clause and it was me that basically said to Frank and the team, I want this as soon as possible,” Wardley said. “I reviewed it, I know what went wrong, and I want to set it right.” He also said the review did not change his view of who was winning. “I made some silly mistakes. I did some small things but consistently wrong and there mistakes I made. I feel like the fight was in my hands and I lost it, not necessarily that Daniel won it.”

Wardley has also said he prefers life without the belt. “Actually, I really love it. It feels more natural, feels more weightless,” he said of being the challenger again. “Now I just feel free.” Dubois, for his part, says the champion status changes nothing about how he prepares. “I always feel like the underdog, always,” he said. “I always carry that mentality.”

The five-month turnaround is the question hanging over the whole promotion. Wardley absorbed a sustained beating over the last five rounds in Manchester, finished with his nose gashed and an eye swollen shut, and is back in a 12-round title fight against the same puncher before the year is out. Dubois has his own history to manage. All three of his losses have come inside the distance, and the two knockdowns in May came from exactly the kind of right hand Wardley will be looking for again from the opening bell.

Former super middleweight champion George Groves, speaking on the Sky Sports Toe2Toe podcast, pushed back on Wardley’s reading of the first fight. “I have seen him say, I caught him, I hurt him, I blew it. It was mine to lose, and I don’t think that is the case, to be honest. I think that it was almost Dubois’ to lose,” Groves said. “Dubois is the better boxer, he has better movement, faster hands, they both can crack but Dubois has got crazy power.” He did add a caveat about the champion’s mindset: “If he has the mentality of, I beat this guy, all I have got to do is show up, I am a better boxer, then he might come unstuck.”

The betting market is no longer split the way it was in May, when Wardley was a marginal favorite at most books. UK bookmakers now have Dubois around 2/7, roughly -350 in American terms, with Wardley near 11/4, roughly +275. A Dubois stoppage is the shortest method price, with a Wardley stoppage seen as the challenger’s most likely path. Check DraftKings, BetMGM and Caesars for current US lines, which were still settling at press time.

Beyond Saturday, Dubois has said he wants to unify, with Agit Kabayel, Filip Hrgovic and Murat Gassiev holding the other belts, and Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua sitting out there as the biggest payday in the division. None of that happens if he loses to Wardley twice in a row.

The undercard is deep in the way Queensberry cards at The O2 usually are. Two-time Olympic gold medalist Bakhodir Jalolov meets Solomon Dacres over 10 rounds at heavyweight. Louie O’Doherty defends his British and Commonwealth lightweight titles against Michael Gomez Jr. over 12, and Roy Jones Jr.-trained super flyweight Tony Curtis faces Kerim Agius over eight. Nelson Birchall, Leighton Birchall, Fawas Aborode, Aaron Noriega, Zayn Ahmed and Isaiah Hamilton-Allen fill out the rest of the bill.

Dubois vs. Wardley 2 airs Saturday, October 17 on DAZN pay-per-view worldwide.