Wardley (20-2-1, 19 KOs) lost by stoppage for the second consecutive time to Ring No. 1 heavyweight Daniel Dubois (24-3, 23 KOs) at London’s O2 Arena on Saturday night.

After lasting 11 rounds in their initial May 9 clash, the 31-year-old was blitzed inside two pulsating rounds by the ruthless WBO champion. After touching the canvas within the first 20 seconds, Wardley’s defense crumbled under Dubois's relentless pressure before trainer Ben Davison threw in the towel. 

But the Ipswich man, The Ring No. 5 and former titleholder, has no intention of walking away from the sport. Instead, he will use Dubois as the example of how to bounce back.

“We’ll go back to the drawing board as a team,” Wardley said. “There’s no shame in losing to a competitor like Daniel. He’s a testament himself to losing, coming back, and I’ll be looking to do the exact same thing.”

Dubois’ dominance added weight to the argument that he is the best heavyweight on the planet not named Oleksandr Usyk. But it is easy to forget that Dubois has three losses on his own record, all of which came inside the distance.

Joe Joyce stopped him in the 10th round of their British grudge match in November 2020. He was out for seven months with a fractured eye socket from that clash, but rebuilt with four KO victories that led to his first fight with Usyk.

Usyk stopped him in the ninth of their clash at Stadion Wroclaw in Poland, but he did not turn his back on another big rebuilding job.

Stoppage wins over previously undefeated Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic earned him the IBF title before he crushed Anthony Joshua in his first defense in September 2024.

Ten months later, he lost for the third time as Usyk stopped him again — even more emphatically — when they met in an undisputed showdown at Wembley Stadium.

Wardley gave Dubois a path back to world title contention by selecting him for a voluntary defense in May. Dubois returned the favor by stopping him twice in five months.

“There’s no shame in a loss when you’re testing yourself against the best,” Wardley said. 

On Saturday’s clash at a sold-out O2 Arena, Wardley added: “A little old white-collar boy like me could never dream of something like this. Thank you to Daniel and his team for two fantastic fights, but it wasn’t my night and I’ll come back stronger.”