Five months ago, watching a likely Fight of the Year between Daniel Dubois and Fabio Wardley in Manchester, a ringside seat offered an initially thrilling insight into the raw brutality of heavyweight boxing. It was easy to be swept up in the drama as Wardley, defending his WBO title, dropped his more seasoned and favoured rival in the first and third rounds. But Dubois, whose courage had been questioned before, got up both times and fought back with admirable resolve.

Dubois soon took control of the contest and administered a punishing beating, round after round, as concern for Wardley intensified. It was a worrying sight as the reeling champion refused to go down amid the damage being done to him by the bludgeoning power by Dubois. A terrible gash opened up across the bridge of Wardley’s nose and his face looked swollen. The end was finally confirmed in the 11th round, after the referee rescued Wardley from his own bravery, but it was the kind of heavy loss which takes years off a fighter’s career.

Wardley is one of the most intelligent and articulate fighters in Britain and it’s surprising that he has insisted on a rematch this Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London. A much longer rest, and then a far less perilous return to the ring, would have been a wise and pragmatic option. But the 31-year-old, whose previously unbeaten record was ruined by Dubois, insisted this week that “the thought of [their first fight] is worse than the reality. You put a bit of blood there, add some water and sweat and a punch that makes it spray everywhere, and all of a sudden it looks like a Quentin Tarantino film. It looks a bit mental.

“But there was no real actual physical damage aside from cosmetically. There was a cut, but my nose wasn’t broken. I could still breathe fine, everything in good working order. I was just leaking a bit [of blood]. But I’ve been hit earlier in my career with harder shots that have rocked me more than anything that happened in the first fight between us.”

He also suggested that fatigue, rather than the concussive force of Dubois’s punches, unravelled him. None of this really matches the sight of the weaving and broken figure Wardley resembled on that compelling but disturbing night in Manchester.

At this week’s press conference Wardley added: “I was unlikely to get through this boxing game unscathed with an undefeated record, because I want to be in there with the best guys. And that puts you in jeopardy. I can right those wrongs. Now is the fun bit.”

Dubois looked unimpressed and, in a typically terse response, dismissed any idea that Wardley would face anything but a night freighted with pain: “I’m feeling stronger, just grounded and ready to go out there and do my job. Do this thing and move on to bigger and better things.”

The 29-year-old Dubois has beaten Anthony Joshua and Filip Hrgovic, who now holds the IBF version of the world title, and he is a prohibitive favourite to beat Wardley again. “I’m a better fighter, an improved fighter,” Dubois said. “I’ll finish it quicker. I’m gonna school him again. That experience, and amateur background that you can’t buy, is what I’ve got on my side. Even without that, I’ve got his number. This time around, it’s going to be more clinical.”

Wardley’s best chance might be to use his own considerable power early in another slugfest and hope that, this time, his punches overwhelm Dubois. “It’s only going one way,” Wardley said. “It’s finishing early one way or another. It’s going to be a crazy night. Everyone, tune in.”

Derek Chisora, the battered old warhorse of a heavyweight who is threatening to make yet another comeback to the ring, was scathing on the radio this week. “I think this is Wardley’s last fight,” Chisora said. “I believe he is concentrating on being a pundit. I don’t think he wants to box any more; I think this is a cash-out. Wardley is going to come out in the first three rounds and try to lay it on Daniel but, after three rounds, Daniel is going to get another knockout.”

Wardley, instead, has insisted that he will use the experience of his two fights against Frazer Clarke to plot an unlikely victory. After he and Clarke fought each to a near standstill in a savage contest which ended as a blood-spattered draw in March 2024, also at the O2, Wardley dismantled the same man and knocked him out shockingly in just over two minutes seven months later. He believes that he can conjure up another startling turnaround against Dubois.

But the cold hard logic of the ring suggests that, this time, Wardley is trading in dangerous fantasy.