Defending WBO champion Wardley, who had dropped Dubois twice, was stopped in the 11th by referee Howard Foster after sustaining heavy punishment for a number of rounds at Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena on May 9.

Davison and his team came under heavy fire for leaving their man in too long, rather than throwing in the towel to save him for another day. In their contracted rematch five months later, Wardley was taken out inside two by a rampant Dubois.

Now, during an honest and open interview with Playbook Boxing, Davison admitted he may have got it wrong six months ago in Manchester.

When asked whether he should have stopped the fight earlier, Davison said: “Yeah potentially. Looking back I think it probably could have been stopped a couple of rounds earlier, yes. Would Fabio be happy with that? No but looking back I’m man enough to turn around and say I could have stopped that one earlier. We all make mistakes.

“Fighters want to go out on their shields and it’s our job to protect them. But sometimes there’s a time and a place to give them their best chance possible. There are other times where maybe it’s not the time to do that. There are things that happen in camp that give you the better sight of how to make that judgement call.”

Davison, still only 33, is one of boxing's most prominent trainers after working with multiple world champions including Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, Josh Taylor, Leigh Wood and Billy Joe Saunders.

However he has also become one of the game's most criticized coaches after a series of high-profile losses. Featuring among them are Wardley’s two against Dubois, Joshua’s knockout defeat to the Londoner in September 2024 and Moses Itauma’s shock ninth-round stoppage by Filip Hrgovic in August.

But Davison pointed out that Angelo Dundee, perhaps history’s most revered trainer, also had a difficult spell during the early 70s.

He said: “Angelo Dundee, in the space of two years, had Jimmy Ellis lose to Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali lose to Joe Frazier, Jose Napoles lose to Carlos Monzon, and Muhammad Ali lose to Ken Norton. In today’s age, imagine the criticism he would have got there.”

“That’s one of the greatest trainers in the history of boxing and, only a year later, they went and shocked the world with Muhammad Ali beating George Foreman. It’s just the world that we live in today. There is so much nonsense that gets spouted.”

Davison has been re-employed by Joshua for the December 11 superfight with his former client Fury at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium. The pair will meet for the WBA heavyweight title in Davison’s 20th world title fight as a coach.

Davison, speaking from Joshua’s training camp in Spain, said: “We’ve done 19 world title fights and lost five. One of those was Wood against Mauricio Lara which very quickly got turned around [in the rematch]. The two fights with Fabio and Dubois but I just feel like when you put context to it, Fabio has achieved something that’s never been done. Someone with zero amateur fights and four white-collar fights has become world heavyweight champion.

“In the last 12 months alone for example, we’ve had two British champions, a European champion and a heavyweeight champion of the world. A lot of coaches would be happy to achieve that in their whole career. But, by everybody’s standards, it’s a bad year.”