Lou DiBella has spent decades in boxing watching promoters push fighters well past the point they should have stopped, and even by his own jaded standards, what Mariusz Wach did to himself over the past two weeks was enough to pull him out of retirement from public outrage.

“Mariusz Wach needs to be protected from the blood merchants and from himself,” read his scathing critique on X. “The man should not have been anywhere near a ring with Fury and certainly not in a 1 vs. 6 handicap match immediately thereafter. He is a washed, out-of-shape, middle-aged man. This is f**king grotesque 3 weeks after another grotesque abomination of a “fight”.”

“Boxing and combat sports continue to prove, again and again, that no bar is too low, no danger is too great, and nothing is able to shock the jaded, shoulder-shrugging sensibilities of fans who faithfully watch the floor of decency sink lower.”

The 46-year-old Wach had just spent seven rounds absorbing punishment from Tyson Fury in Pattaya, Thailand, on July 24, a lopsided, unbroadcast tune-up fight in front of just 1,500 fans that existed mainly to keep Fury sharp ahead of a planned superfight with Anthony Joshua in November. Fury, at 265 pounds to Wach’s 291.4, controlled the fight from the opening bell, and Wach’s corner pulled him out before the eighth round.

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Two weeks later, instead of resting, Wach signed up for something stranger. On August 8, at Prime MMA Show 18: Summer Festival in Koszalin, Poland, he stepped into a cage to face a six-man “Gypsy Team,” two opponents at a time under K-1 rules with MMA gloves, the rest able to tag in and out as they pleased. It didn’t go well. His opponents pinned him against the cage and wore him down in waves, and the referee finally stopped it with nine seconds left in the third round, Wach bleeding from a deep gash under his eye.

Two weeks later, instead of resting, Wach signed up for something stranger. On August 8, at Prime MMA Show 18: Summer Festival in Koszalin, Poland, he stepped into a cage to face a six-man “Gypsy Team,” two opponents at a time under K-1 rules with MMA gloves, the rest able to tag in and out as they pleased. It didn’t go well. His opponents pinned him against the cage and wore him down in waves, and the referee finally stopped it with nine seconds left in the third round, Wach bleeding from a deep gash under his eye.

DiBella’s reaction isn’t something that may seem superficial from the surface. He’s been the person forced to make this exact call before, and once, it cost him a fighter he clearly cared about.

Mariusz Wach: Tyson Fury was just the beginning

In 2009, DiBella promoted Jermain Taylor, the former undisputed middleweight champion, through one of the roughest stretches of his career. Taylor lost four of five fights in that span, two brutal knockouts to Kelly Pavlik and further stoppages against Carl Froch and Arthur Abraham, the last of which left him hospitalized with a concussion and short-term memory loss. When Taylor chose to keep fighting in the Super Six tournament anyway, DiBella walked away from him entirely.

“It is with a heavy heart, but strong conviction, that I will recuse myself and DiBella Entertainment as Jermain’s promoter,” DiBella said in a statement at the time. “Jermain’s career has been outstanding, and it has been a pleasure and honor to promote him. His victories against Bernard Hopkins remain the highlights of my career as a promoter. Jermain is not only a great fighter, but a good and decent man with a wonderful family. While he is undoubtedly capable of prevailing in future bouts, I cannot, in conscience, remain involved given my assessment of such risk.”

That’s the standard DiBella is holding Wach’s situation up against now, and by his own account, Wach doesn’t come close to clearing it.

No new fight has been announced for Wach since Saturday’s stoppage. Fury’s path forward is clearer: his showdown with Joshua remains on track for November, the very fight Wach’s tune-up was supposed to help set up.