Wardley's Trainer Responds To Corner Criticism

Ben Davison has acknowledged the criticism directed at Fabio Wardley's corner.

Wardley suffered a TKO loss to Daniel Dubois at the Co-op Live Arena, a fight in which he dropped Dubois twice early before gradually absorbing severe punishment as the rounds progressed. Once Wardley's jab disappeared and he began swinging for home run shots, he became a stationary target for one of the hardest punchers in the division.

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Referee Howard Foster eventually stepped in during the eleventh, but the debate that followed centred not on that intervention but on why it did not come earlier — and whether the corner should have made the decision themselves.

Davison responded to the criticism: "I actually agree the fight could have been stopped earlier.” He revealed that he and the corner had been discussing having the towel in hand heading into round ten, but that he missed Wardley stumbling before walking over to the doctor at the start of that round.

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Had he seen it, may have prompted earlier action: "It's such a difficult job to strike at the right time to stop a fight like that on a whim when your guy is responsive and firing back," Davidson added

The punishment Wardley absorbed from the seventh round through to the eleventh represents four additional rounds of damage taken by a fighter who, by that stage of the fight, had lost the tools needed to protect himself effectively. The line between giving a fighter every chance and allowing unnecessary punishment is one that the sport has always struggled to draw cleanly.

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