Promoter Frank Warren said both men deserve a good rest before anyone even thinks about their next moves but he knows as well as anyone that’s not exactly how boxing works. The result at Co-op Live Arena had significant ramifications for the future of both men and the heavyweight division as a whole. So what could be around the corner for Dubois and Wardley?

This potential match-up is the reason Dubois had suggested that Warren, who also promotes Wardley, actually wanted him to win. With Wardley and Itauma both training in the same gym, the Ipswich man described a fight between them as “an impossibility” as recently as last week. That is not the case for Dubois and now, as it stands, Itauma looks like his most likely next opponent given the 21-year-old is about to be named as the WBO mandatory challenger. The fly in the ointment may be the contracted rematch ...

... Which brings us nicely onto Wardley himself. Given he took Dubois as a voluntary defense, Warren has confirmed there is an option for an immediate rematch. At this point, the idea of that fight might make most ordinary people wince, but Wardley is not like most ordinary people. Privately, he will be sick that he dropped Dubois twice in the opening three rounds but still lost and he will surely want the chance to put that right. Should the WBO stick an immediate mandatory on Dubois, the situation could become even stickier with Dubois caught between the sanctioning body’s demand and the contracted rematch.

One way for Dubois to at least appease the WBO would be to head into an undisputed clash with The Ring, IBF, WBC and WBA champion, Oleksandr Usyk, as we know that a unification will usually trump mandatory obligations. During an appearance on "Inside The Ring," Usyk himself stated that he would like to face the winner of Dubois-Wardley, once he has handled business against Rico Verhoeven in Egypt this month, as he bids to become a four-time undisputed champion. The problem is that Usyk has already stopped Dubois twice and the appetite for a third fight, even after the Englishman’s heroics against Wardley, are understandably low.

Hear me out on this one. Should Wardley decide against the rematch and should the WBO allow Dubois to make a voluntary first defense of his new title, there could be some fun fights to be made. We all know the 40-year-old version of Deontay Wilder is nothing like the former WBC champion, who emerged as one of the history’s hardest hitters, but the Bronze Bomber is still box office. Dubois would rightfully start as a huge favourite in this fight and it would represent an opportunity to grow commercially, particularly in America, for a man who doesn’t much like talking. The good news is that Wilder does, and he against Dubois at London’s O2 Arena for the world heavyweight title would be a sell-out.

If you’re still reading after the Wilder shout then get a load of this one. Joe Joyce was the first man to beat Dubois and the nature of the stoppage back in November 2020, with the younger man on one knee and unable to beat the count, was the reason for the "quitter" allegations which plagued him for years. Dubois has always said he wants revenge for what happened that night and this might just be his last chance to exact it given that Joyce is now 40. The west Londoner would need a win in a ranking fight with the WBO first but stranger things have happened.

See above for why a man like Wardley might just decide to dive head first back into the fire. He will back himself to make the necessary adjustments in a second crack at Dubois, just like he did when he drew with Frazer Clarke then left him needing facial surgery after 148 seconds of their rematch. After the shellacking he took late in the fight against Dubois, there will be many who expect more of the same in the rematch but just ask Anthony Joshua (Andy Ruiz) and Lennox Lewis (Hasim Rahman, Oliver McCall, Evander Holyfield) whether British heavyweights can change the result in a world title rematch.

Perhaps Wardley decides against an immediate rematch and instead opts to rebuild in a different way. After a period of taking stock, the 31-year-old puncher, never one to take an easy fight, would require a significant clash to get his teeth into. His problem may be that not many heavyweights will be desperate to jump into a fight with him, given his superhuman heart, chin and 95 per cent knockout ratio. But someone like Tony Yoka, another Queensberry heavyweight, finds himself in a similar situation. After Lawrence Okolie’s failed drug test caused the cancellation of their scheduled fight, perhaps he’d be open to throwing down with a different Englishman.

It’s quite clear that 32-year-old Gassiev is basically up for fighting anyone at any point. He currently holds the WBA "regular" belt, which Wardley was in talks to fight Kubrat Pulev for early last year, and it could be a route they head back down. Gassiev beat Pulev to claim the secondary strap in Dubai on December 12 but does not have his next fight booked. He is, however, desperate to box in the UK not least so he can watch some Premier League football in the flesh. If somebody would just tell him that Ipswich Town got promoted back to the top flight this season, he would probably book his flight to face Wardley straight away.

This slot could feasibly be filled by about five or six different heavyweights from the higher reaches of the heavyweight division so this one is really just a personal pick. Since moving up from cruiserweight, Richard Riakporhe has looked like a man capable of gatecrashing the world scene up at heavy. He saw off Jeamie TKV in five rounds in what was his biggest test at the weight so far but an all-British clash with former world champion Wardley would show us what he’s really capable of, or isn’t.

Knowing Wardley's character, this seems like the most unlikely scenario in this whole column. It's almost unthinkable that he would bow out of the sport off the back of this defeat without having at least one go at winning the world title back. But after damaging wars against Frazer Clarke, Justis Huni and Joseph Parker, Saturday night was another fight that could change any man and, at 31, with a young daughter at home, Wardley would be well within his rights to do something else with his time. His rise from a four-fight white collar novice to world heavyweight champion already provides a story rich enough for Hollywood so perhaps he could just direct the film and keep his face out of the firing line. It won’t happen, but nobody could argue if he did.