Anthony Joshua must avoid this exact Fabio Wardley mistake to topple Tyson Fury

As “Triple D” Daniel “Dynamite” Dubois dismantled Fabio Wardley under the dome of the O2 on Saturday, there was double deja vu. And yes, fine, the alliteration there is about as excessive as the punishment Wardley absorbed.

Five months on from the first loss of his career, Wardley was stopped by Dubois again. That was the first familiarity, but the second is altogether more intriguing. We’ll get to that soon.

Firstly though, the damage admittedly looked different this time, as did the pattern of the fight. May’s heavyweight clash in Manchester saw Wardley drop Dubois in the first 10 seconds and again in round three, before Dubois rallied, took over the fight, and stopped a bloody Wardley late on. On Saturday, the fate of the WBO title was decided inside two rounds, although there’s an argument that it was really decided in the opening 20 seconds; that was when a jackhammer right cross hurt Wardley, who never truly recovered.

The second case of deja vu, though, will have flitted through fans during the five minutes in which Wardley tried to jolt himself awake from this nightmare.

More than once, Wardley tried to deter Dubois with a rear uppercut, and more than once he was punished for it. It was the same shot that cost Anthony Joshua in his beating by Dubois in 2024, when Ben Davison was in his corner – just as he was in Wardley’s on Saturday.

That punch can feel an unwise choice at the best of times, a technique that leaves you vulnerable, but these were the worst of times.

Andy Lee, one of Tyson Fury’s coaches, was quick to call out the error on commentary for DAZN. It’s worth noting that Fury vs Joshua, on 11 December, will pit Lee against Davison.

It’s also worth noting that an animated Lee was speaking instinctively, and certainly insightfully; this did not appear to be any dig at Davison, who has received his fair share this year – not only in the wake of Wardley’s losses to Dubois, but also after Moses Itauma’s defeat by Filip Hrgovic. In the same vein, this article is not meant as a dig at Davison.

Furthermore, while corner footage showed Davison calling on Joshua to utilise that uppercut against Dubois in 2024, there’s always the chance that Wardley threw it instinctively or of his own volition on Saturday. Some fans may raise their eyebrows at the suggestion, but other moments in the fight betrayed the faults in Wardley’s instincts.

Notoriously a white-collar fighter before his professional career, with no amateur stint to his name, the Ipswich boxer is always under greater scrutiny than his peers, but his habit of turning away from Dubois’s punches in the rematch was rightly highlighted on commentary as a naive response.

Now and then, the 31-year-old did find himself in the clinch – theoretically a safer place for respite – but referee Steve Gray was quick to separate Wardley and Dubois, 29. Other referees might have allowed longer clinches, meaning more recovery time for Wardley. There is no inherent issue with Gray’s approach, to be clear, and longer clinches would have allowed Dubois to do a different kind of work on a hurt Wardley. Perhaps Wardley was doomed regardless, after that early onslaught from Dubois.

Either way, questions have now arisen over Wardley’s long-term future, but the division is also fascinating in the short term, Fury vs Joshua included.

Of course, it wouldn’t be fair to pin the result of Fury vs Joshua on Davison’s coaching, and it certainly wouldn’t be fair to pin it on a specific – if repeated – error from his boxers.

At the time of writing, Fury is a clear favourite over Joshua for a plethora of reasons, and Davison might actually be the best coach for “AJ” at this juncture. That’s not only based on Davison’s insights as one of Fury’s ex-coaches, but also the fine run of results that Davison and Joshua achieved between 2023 and 2024.

Joshua, who has had numerous trainers throughout his career (and who enters the Fury bout on the back of a major scare against Kristian Prenga, as well as a car crash in December that killed two of his friends) needs confidence as much as anything else on 11 December.

Davison might bring Joshua that confidence, but there is a fine line between confidence and a dangerous commitment to the wrong tactic. Against Fury, Davison and Joshua must be switched on like never before.