Wardley dropped Daniel Dubois in the first and third rounds during their fight in May, only to gradually get sliced and diced and fall behind on the scorecards before getting brutally stopped in the 11th round with a disfigured face.

Although Moses Itauma dominated his vacant IBF title fight with Filip Hrgovic Saturday night, winning every round on two of the three judges' scorecards, he ultimately suffered a similar fate as he was stopped in the ninth round after running out of gas.

Wardley was ringside for the occasion at London's O2 Arena as a pundit, as well as to announce his October 17 rematch against Dubois.

Wardley offered his assessment of the shocking result during DAZN's broadcast.

"We all saw over those first three rounds that Itauma flew out of the tracks and looked incredible doing it," Wardley said. "But you have to take a second to look and go, 'Hang on. This isn't moving this man in the same way that I have done previous opponents, and it's not looking the same.' Itauma won every round. He should have knocked a few gears off that and still probably won the rounds and be fine, or take a few rounds off.

"But that comes with time and experience, something I very much learned in my first fight with Frazer Clarke. The first time going to 12 rounds, I was thankful to come away with a draw. But I knew that going into the second fight, I needed to pace myself a bit better in the moments and I needed to look after myself in other situations."

Wardley then pointed to the mistakes he made against Dubois, and how the still-green Itauma might have done the same.

"As fighters, we fight off emotions sometimes, and we're not always there to get it right," Wardley said. "And the corner may advise us on what to do. Like, I can take you back to my first fight with Dubois. Everyone was advising me differently, and in my own brain, I was doing what I wanted to do.

"I wasn't acting responsibly for the fight. I wasn't listening to the plan. Your corner can do the best job with you, and they can talk you through everything, and they can run you through how you should behave, and what you should do in this next round coming up. Unless you act upon that information, or you take a second in the rounds and go, 'I'm blowing a bit here; I need a second,' It's gonna turn out like that, which is a real shame."

The 21-year-old Itauma (14-1, 12 KOs) was stretchered out of the ring and shared his first set of statements on social media on Sunday and vowed that he'll be back.

Like countless others, Wardley (20-1-1, 19 KO) is not worried that Itauma's setback will be a career-altering one.

"This is by no means anywhere near the end of Moses Itauma, but it'll be a great lesson for him," Wardley said. "It will hurt. It will sting, but I can't see anything but him coming back better and stronger.

"And how solid was Hrgovic's chin? His head was flying from left to right, but he was never particularly wobbled, unstable on his feet, or even really moved by it, which is crazy because we know the power, speed, sharpness, and accuracy that Moses has. All of those things were on point, and still, Hrgovic's chin stood the test."