Dubois became the new WBO heavyweight champion in Manchester, England, after getting up off the canvas twice inside the opening three rounds and forcing a stoppage of his own in the 11th. The main talking point after the fight was whether Wardley, who sustained serious facial damage as a result of a prolonged beating in the final few rounds, should have been withdrawn sooner.

Referee Howard Foster, with his own history of jumping in to end fights too early, was the man to finally do it after the ringside doctor twice checked Wardley’s injuries prior to allowing the bloody battle to continue. But McGuigan, who spent 2½ years as Dubois’ head coach, believes the blame lies with Wardley’s corner team of Rob Hodgins, Ben Davison and Lee Wylie.

“They should have done it two rounds before,” McGuigan told The Ring.

“Six minutes. That scenario, those last two rounds, could have happened 10 times, and he might have only been able to walk away twice. Let’s be real. Obviously, you can’t be squeamish. You’re employed to be in the corner to give a guy that’s a dangerous puncher every opportunity to win the fight. The closest person, the person that stops most fights, is the referee. But the argument is that Wardley kept firing back at the critical point. That means it is taken out of his hands. The doctor then had two looks at him, stuck his fingers in the cut in his nose, then asked him how many fingers he’s holding up. He was absolutely wrecked at that point.

“But if the doctor says to carry on you’ve got three people that have trained eyes in the corner. Lee Wylie considers himself a coach, Ben Davison does, too, and then you have his original coach. So, you’ve got three coaches and also a cuts man who has been around boxing for a long time, which is another set of boxing eyes. I think someone should have seen it. Someone should have thought, ‘I’m going to save this guy.’ I’m going to walk away and people might boo me, but I’m saving this guy’s health, and actually it creates more drama for the rematch.”

Amazingly, the 31-year-old Wardley (20-1-1, 19 KOs) stayed on his feet throughout the fight, despite the onslaught from Dubois (23-3, 22 KOs). The former champion has since exercised the rematch clause, with plans for their second meeting to happen in the fourth quarter of this year. Nonetheless, McGuigan believes the two-time world heavyweight champion’s reputation should have been considered when it came to the fight carrying on.

“You have a guy in Wardley that is a white-collar fighter who took to it late boxing Daniel, who has been over 100 kilos since he’s probably 15 years of age,” McGuigan said. “He allegedly knocked out Anthony Joshua in sparring when he was 17, so everyone knew that he was a monster puncher. He was in my gym for 2½ years, flattening people day in, day out. It’s horrible. I’ve never seen someone deck so many people. And not just deck them, sleep them. He doesn’t even look like he’s trying on his shots, but there is just ridiculous power in them.”

McGuigan himself has received criticism for allowing fights to go on too long. Some suggested he should have pulled Chris Billam-Smith out of his 2024 defeat to Gilberto Ramirez once the Mexican started to land more regularly in the later rounds. Instead, the fight went the distance, with Ramirez winning via scores of 116-112 twice and 116-113.

Back in 2017, McGuigan was also head trainer for David Haye when he ruptured his Achilles’ tendon in the sixth round of his grudge match with Tony Bellew. The fight continued until the 11th, when McGuigan eventually threw in the towel.

“Zurdo was a super middleweight, then a light heavyweight, then boxed Billam-Smith up at cruiserweight,” McGuigan said of his decision not to step in. “Chris has campaigned his whole career at cruiserweight.

“Then David Haye was boxing a guy [Bellew] who was a light heavyweight, then a cruiserweight and was blown up to heavyweight. David was naturally a heavy cruiserweight. But with Daniel, it’s completely different. I know what he can do to someone.”