Dubois retains WBO heavyweight title with brutal second-round stoppage of Wardley

LONDON — Daniel Dubois retained his WBO heavyweight title with a brutal second-round stoppage of Fabio Wardley on Saturday as their fight-of-the-year rematch at the O2 Arena ended in a furious assault from the champion.

There were 39 seconds of the round left when referee Steve Gray waved off the contest at the same time as the towel was thrown into the ring by Wardley’s trainer Ben Davison.

Dubois was also punishing in the first round — he needed just 17 seconds to put fellow British boxer Wardley on the canvas with an overhand right.

Resuming hostilities just five months after their first slugfest, Dubois (24-3, 23 KOs) launched an all-out assault from the first bell and was rewarded with a destructive victory that issued a statement to his rivals in the division.

“It was my time and it’s my era. I had bad intentions from the beginning,” Dubois told Britain’s Press Association. “We just had to go out there and show that we mean business, which is what we did.”

Dubois had bloodied Wardley in an 11th-round stoppage victory in May to become a two-time heavyweight champion. Wardley dropped the former IBF champion just seconds into that fight in Manchester but never looked a threat to Dubois on Saturday.

It was the second professional loss for Wardley (20-2-1, 19 KOs).

“It’s never fun to lose, but it is what it is. The game is the game,” Wardley said. “I have always thrown myself in with the best competitors out there — the best in the business, the biggest, hardest, meanest guys around — so there’s no shame in a loss when you’re testing yourself against the best.”