Suffolk boxing star Fabio Wardley is the new number one contender to face champion Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight titles after beating Joseph Parker last month. Mark Heath spoke to him…
Starting my chat with Fabio Wardley, I introduce him as the number one contender for the undisputed heavyweight title, and second-best heavyweight on the planet – both spots he earned after sensationally stopping ex-world champ Joseph Parker at the O2 Arena last month.
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How does it sound to hear that? “It all sounds pretty good!” Wardley laughs, a huge grin spreading across his face. “It doesn’t necessarily sound real, but yeah, everything’s gone pretty well over the last week or so.”
READ MORE: Wardley sensationally stops Parker at the O2 Arena
That’s an understatement. Once again, the Suffolk slugger found a way to win a fight no-one outside of his tight-knit team really thought he could. Parker had a huge experience advantage, a red-hot win streak and years fighting the very best in the sport.
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But once again, none of that mattered. Having shown he can very much box with the world’s best, Wardley once more summoned his terrifying power to hurt and stop Parker in the 11th round of one of the fights of the year so far.
Fabio Wardley (left) wobbles Joseph Parker on the way to stopping him at the O2 Arena (Image: PA)
“For the most part, the fight went as we expected,” Wardley tells me. “I never expected to have it all my own way.
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“There was good back and forth exchanges, there were rounds where he was doing well, rounds where I was doing well, adjustments that needed to be made.
“He had some really good attributes – his jab, double jab, left hooks. There were things he was doing which we had to work on in the moment and figure out a bit.
“But overall, it all went to plan really. We knew the areas where I could get him, the areas where I’d be stronger and a bit better in, and we exploited them pretty well.”
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Coach Rob Hodgins jumps on top of Fabio Wardley after he’d beaten Joseph Parker (Image: Leigh Dawney/Queensberry)
The former Chantry High student crumpled to the canvas after referee Howard Foster stepped in to end the fight and rescue Parker, with Rob Hodgins – who’s coached Wardley since day one of his boxing odyssey – then jumping on top of him and relaying a message into his ear.
I ask what Wardley (now 20-0-1, 19KO) was thinking in that moment – and what Hodgins said to him.
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“All the way in the build-up, I wasn’t allowing myself to think about what came after,” he replies. “And then getting the win, the fight gets called off, in that moment, I was like ‘I’ve done it!’
“I allowed myself in that moment to go ‘you know what’s next? You know what you’ve just got the chance to do?’
“And Rob jumped on top of me and said ‘do you know what you’ve just done?’ He had the same sentiment in his head. We were on the same wavelength.”
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What comes next, remarkably, is a fight against one of the greatest boxers to ever walk the planet.
Ukrainian icon Usyk (24-0, 15KO) is the current undisputed heavyweight champion, having also been the undisputed cruiserweight king before stepping up to boxing’s marquee division.
The unbeaten Oleksandr Usyk is a generational great (Image: PA)
“He is everything everyone says and more,” Wardley enthuses, as he considers the huge task in front of him. “A generational great, a generational talent, the best boxer on the planet currently.
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“So it’s one hell of a task, but I think I’ve got attributes that can get me good moments in the fight and it’s just about capitalising on them.
“But make no mistake, it’s a very tall task, a very big ask. No-one’s been able to get through it as yet, but my thing is that the fighters he’s faced previously have all been pretty conventional in terms of how they do things.
“Maybe the one thing to throw off the ultimate boxer is someone who’s a bit unconventional, a bit different, who doesn’t move to the same kind of rhythm… maybe, we’ll see.”
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Wardley’s promoter, the legendary Frank Warren, has suggested in the last week or so that negotiations for the fight have started.
Fabio Wardley after his win over Joseph Parker (Image: PA)
“It’s not something I can confirm, because I haven’t spoken to Frank!” Wardley explains. “I’ve left it to him really. I said to him afterwards, you do your thing and we’ll catch up in a week or two.
“These early doors things are the most broad conversations, nothing’s even close to being nailed.
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“So for me I was like I’ve done my job, that’s your side, it’s up to you – I don’t need to be calling you every day for an update.
“So I haven’t. We’ll catch up in a few weeks, figure a few things out and see where we land.”
Wembley Stadium next spring or summer is the location and time that has been mentioned most in the chat around the fight – but Wardley has his eye on a different place.
“I don’t know to be honest,” he insists when I ask about where he’d like to fight Usyk. “I’d quite like to do something different.
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“Don’t get me wrong, Wembley is very different, but I’d like to do something in America I think.
“Maybe Vegas, maybe MSG (Madison Square Garden in New York). I’ve done the UK, I’ve done a stadium in the UK, I’ve done the O2, I’ve done Riyad – I’d like to do something different and go to America.
“But ultimately, it’s not up to me – it’s up to the big man, Usyk himself.
“If he wants to do it at Wembley or somewhere closer to his homeland, it’s all up to him really. We’ll see.”
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Fabio Wardley says he’d like to face Oleksandr Usyk in America next year (Image: PA)
As to the potential date, he adds: “Somewhere in the middle of spring and summer… April, May ideally, something like that.
“A good bit of time, good bit of training camp, just get straight into things at the beginning of the year.
“That would be ideal for me, but again he’s the big man, it’s up to him.”
Of course, this is boxing, so nothing is ever simple. Usyk doesn’t have to face Wardley if he doesn’t want to – he could simply give up the WBO title.
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“I’d be elevated to full world champion, so I’d get the belt and I’d be able to defend it,” Wardley confirms of that scenario.
“So then I’d have a world title defence against someone of my choosing.”
But ultimately, he wants to face Usyk, the man he served as a sparring partner for seven years ago, when he was just a fledgling boxing professional.
Fabio Wardley, left, and Oleksandr Usyk sparred years ago (Image: PA Sport)
“I remember him just pinging me all around the place to be honest!” he recalls of those sparring sessions in the Ukraine.
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“I was very early in my career, maybe two or three fights in, so I was brand new. It was the first time I’d been away for a sparring camp.
“Don’t get me wrong, he’s got much better since, but he was still a great fighter back then. So I just remember getting punched up a lot, to be honest.”
I finish by telling Wardley something I wouldn’t have said before October 25th and that sensational Parker win – I believe he can beat Usyk.
Wardley’s arguably the biggest puncher the Ukrainian will have ever faced, and – as he’s alluded to above – he moves and throws punches in an unorthodox fashion.
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Crucially, for me, Wardley’s mental fortitude and self-belief is unbreakable – vital when so many Usyk foes crumble before the fight or during the battle itself, as the legendary champion slowly cranks up the pressure.
So, what does Wardley think of my suggestion – that he comes through the fire and finds a way to stop Usyk late on? Doing so would make the Suffolk man just the third undisputed heavyweight champion this century, behind only Usyk and British legend Lennox Lewis.
Lennox Lewis is the only other undisputed heavyweight champion this century (Image: PA)
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“It’s definitely doable,” he insists. “I said in the ring after the (Parker) fight – one way or another, Oleksandr Usyk is going to come out of that knowing he’s been in a fight, there’s no way it’s going to be an easy ride.
“He’s going to know he’s been in a scrap, and that’s one thing I do bring – that pressure and that power.
“Those two things together can be a recipe for disaster for him.”
