MANCHESTER, England – Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois treated the 18,000 fans at Co-op Live to a heavyweight hummdinger, with Dubois eventually stopping Wardley in round 11, and is expected to force Dubois to fight him again.

They willingly traded from the opening bell. Wardley had Dubois down twice – once in the first and again in the third. The action rarely ceased, but Wardley was wearing the shots more than Dubois, and his face was a bloody mess by the fight's conclusion. The referee Howard Foster had little choice but to save Wardley 28 seconds into the 11th after yet another right hand from Dubois smashed across the 31-year-old Wardley’s face.

The promoter of both fighters, Queensberry Promotions’ Frank Warren, recently celebrated 45 years as a promoter and billed the bout as: “The best heavyweight fight I’ve ever put on.”

He then explained: “There is a rematch clause in the contract. Lets let the dust settle; there’s a lot of things happening in the heavyweight division. And Fabio, he’ll be back, what a gutsy man.”

“It was a war – thank you, Fabio, for that,” Dubois said post-fight.

There had been question marks over his mentality with many pointing to his three defeats – one by Joe Joyce, and two by Oleksandr Usyk – after which Dubois had been labeled a “quitter”. Dubois insisted he had answered any questions about his mentality after recovering from being knocked down twice.

“[Now] they know I’ve got heart,” he said. “I’m a warrior in there. [In the first round it was a] flash knockdown. I just had to bounce it off and come back stronger. I’m a warrior.”

After a personal build-up to their contest Dubois, 28, paid respect to his opponent and the former-WBO heavyweight champion in Wardley.

“I thank Fabio for a great fight,” Dubois said. “He’s a durable guy; a great fighter. It was an honour to be in the ring with him.

“We move on now,” he also said after the all-English contest. “I want to go from this fight and improve, and come back a better fighter.

Prompted to, he then bellowed “Are you not entertained?” before exiting the ring.