Man’s inhumanity to man. Courage of extreme measure rarely seen even in this toughest of all games. Vengeance plucked from adversity and exacted without pity.
A spectacular advertisement for prize-fighting at its stupendous best. Or more ammunition for the abolitionists who cannot comprehend how young men of valour would choose to submit to such visceral punishment. Which, by the way, is their absolute right whether the nanny state likes it or not.
Not least when the prize is so great. Not only financial but of esteem.
To Daniel Dubois the second world heavyweight title of his young life. To Fabio Wardley the glory of the fallen champion carried out on his shield to gladiator acclamation.
Two ballistic punchers inflicted blood and thunder as Daniel Dubois fought Fabio Wardley
To a Manchester crowd who transformed the Co-Op Live Arena into a Roman Colosseum, gratification for their bloodlust but also unbounded admiration for the two combatants.
The warning not to blink was redundant. It was impossible to turn the eyes away for so much as a split second as these two ballistic punchers inflicted blood and thunder on each other. Non-stop from only the tenth second, when Dubois was sent crashing to the canvas for the first time, until just 28 seconds into the eleventh round when referee Howard Foster called a merciful halt to Wardley’s battering.
Wardley had questioned his WBO title challenger’s stomach for brutality of this order. How he wished he had been right as Dubois rose from two early knock downs – the second in the third round – to take revenge more scary than any horror movie.
‘I’m a warrior,’ the Dynamite puncher proclaimed when one of our wisest officials put an end to the subsequent slaughter. This was more than a carnal victory roar. It was a statement of repudiation for all who had doubted his mental resilience in the heat of battle.
As were the countless, massive punches he threw in his vexation. So many that it is hard to imagine many another heavyweight withstanding such an onslaught for so long. Any one of those blows might have done for any man not imbued with Wardley’s unfathomable depths of courage. Not to mention a chin hewn from granite.
The score settled so violently, Dubois was noble in victory as he turned to the face-smashed semi-comatose Wardley and told him: ‘Thank you Fabio for making it possible to be part of such a magnificent fight.’ Which it was. One for the annals of the ring.
Wardley, the white-collar scrapper turned world champion, albeit for one fight only, simply refused go down. No surrender. But Mr Foster, having already given him extra time twice between rounds for repairs to a face flooding with blood from inside as well as outside the nose, had no option but to intervene. Where, it must be said, his corner failed him. It had long gone past the point where anything was left to prove. Not in the outcome. Neither in the bravery of this most stubborn of heroes as he stumbled from crushing blow to head-rattling punch while still pawing at the night air, in vain.
Will Wardley ever have enough time to recover for the rematch in the contract, which both of them expressed willingness to give the public?
Only time will tell how lasting the damage is. Nor is it clear what Dubois might move on to in the coming months.
As promoter Frank Warren observed: ‘All sorts of options are open to Daniel now he has become a two-time world champion in such stunning fashion.’
Dubois was the victor on a night that satisfied the Manchester crowd’s bloodlust
Warren’s stable of British heavyweights includes Moses Itauma, the third young knock-out puncher with which British boxing suddenly finds itself blessed.
Triple D might harbour a lingering desire for a third fight with Oleksandr The Great Usyk, in hope that he might avenge two other defeats on his record.
What he must figure into that calculation is that the Ukrainian is the finest fighter of his generation. Along with the thought that if Wardley had acquired even half Usyk’s consummate skills by fighting in the amateurs instead of white collar boxing he might have made more educated use of his formidable power.
There is also a sense that Usyk, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua are preparing to vacate the battlefield in favour of this new generation of heavyweights. Once, of course, they have cashed out in mega-millions via such oddball fights as Usyk’s upcoming crossover match with a champion kick-boxer in the splendrous setting of Egypt’s Giza Pyramids. And with Fury finally meeting Joshua in their never-never fight.
The young guns are ready to fill the void. Hopefully with Wardley playing his part in the future with Dubois and Itauma.
And to all who queried my assertion a few weeks ago that the slugfest between Deontay Wilder and Derek Chisora was a leading contender for Fight of the Century, let me say that this Saturday night in Manchester has already surpassed it. Also, just for the record, the most stunning heavyweight fight in living memory remains Ali-Frazier III, The Thrilla In Manila.
