Pyrotechnics are launched into the darkness of the Cardiff sky as Anthony Joshua milks every second of a four-minute ring walk. It is March 2018 and heavyweight world champion Joseph Parker is waiting in the ring on the biggest night of his life. There are 78,000 people in the stands for this undisputed showdown. As Michael Buffer announces, there are also millions watching around the world. One of those, 240 miles away at The Plough in Ipswich, is Fabio Wardley.
“I was sitting in a pub with my mates watching his fight against AJ,” Wardley tells Standard Sport. “That was the first time I’d seen Parker. He was a world champion ten years ago. I was a couple of fights into a white-collar career. It’s a funny one if I look at those things side by side, where I was and where he was. Now is not the time for reflection. After the job is done we can look back on what a crazy ride it’s been.”
The job continues on Saturday at the O2. Wardley will not be with his mates, drink in hand, but in the ring to take on Parker. The New Zealander is a better fighter now than when losing to Joshua and it is by Wardley’s own admission the toughest test of his career. It comes with a big prize: the winner is expected to fight Oleksandr Usyk next.
The Parker match-up
Just over 12 months ago, Wardley’s career was at somewhat of a crossroads. Earlier in 2024, he had gone the distance in a bloody, bruising war with British rival Frazer Clarke. Wardley left the ring with his British, Commonwealth and European titles after a draw, but so too reminders of what he had endured.
The 30-year-old had bitten his tongue over 100 times and his nose was a complete mess. A jaw injury meant he had to live off noodles and ice cream for three days, unable to chew.
Defeat in the rematch last October would have necessitated a career rebuild but instead Wardley needed barely two minutes to deliver a brutal knockout. “It’s been proven once over and that’s the only evidence you need to show you can do it,” Wardley says. “Then you know and more importantly everyone that steps into the ring with you knows you hold that power. It’s something that any opponent that faces me is going to have to battle with in their head.”
Parker has been stopped only once, by Joe Joyce three years ago, and has put together a run of confident wins over Deontay Wilder, Zhilei Zhang and Martin Bakole.
Wardley views him as “at least two or three in the world” and the bookmakers have Parker as a firm favourite. It is an intriguing match-up, with even Wardley not entirely sure what to expect. “In terms of how the fight plays out, I think a lot of that depends on Joe,” he says.
“He’s got a lot of experience. He’s confident in different shape-ups. I don’t think they as a team would think it’s too smart to engage with me and turn it into what they would see as a 50-50 battle. We’ve put together Plan A, B, C. We’ll see how he looks and adjust accordingly.”
Wardley holds the WBA interim heavyweight title and Parker has that same position with the WBO. Usyk was ordered in July to begin negotiations with Parker but was granted a 90-day extension due to a back injury.
Rather than wait for their chances and rely on the murky world of boxing politics, Wardley and Parker have admirably opted to roll the dice.
“This is the world title fight before the world title fight,” Wardley says. “It’s so close, it’s within touching distance. That makes this fight one you have to treat as though you are fighting for a world title. We’ve put everything into this camp.”
Usyk holds all the heavyweight belts but those will likely soon be fragmented. Even with the Ukrainian now insisting he will fight for another three years, the long list of mandatory requirements will be almost impossible to fulfill and it therefore feels an ideal time to be arriving on the world-title scene.
“This has been coming to a boiling point for a while,” Wardley agrees. “AJ, Fury, Usyk — that long list of the old guard, they’re reaching the back end of their 30s. They’ve got one, two, maybe three fights left. Then the division is going to shift to the likes of myself and other people who are up and coming. This next year is about putting yourself in pole position.”
The big right hand
Wardley’s route into boxing is by now well-known. He did not throw a single punch as an amateur but instead four white-collar fights, starting at the age of 20, served as preparation for the professional ranks.
Since then he is unbeaten in 20 bouts and has 18 knockouts to his name. There must be an element of frustration when his unusual backstory can at times be used in a patronising fashion, as though he is a novice chancing his way through the division. “I don’t think the white-collar tag is really something I’m ever going to escape,” Wardley admits.
Whatever the tag, Wardley does not do boring. In a Portman Road homecoming in June, he was well down on the cards in the tenth round and in grave danger of a shock defeat to Justis Huni.
A massive right hand duly flattened the Australian and Wardley took confidence from delivering in front of his home fans: “However big the weight I can still shoulder it.”
Members of Parker’s team at last month’s press conference emphasised how lucky they felt Wardley was that night but he is used to being doubted. “’Oh you’re just a white-collar fighter and you’re going to get found out’, blah blah blah blah blah,” Wardley says.
“And then it moved onto, ‘oh well all you’ve got is a big right hand and that keeps saving you’. There’s always another excuse and another reason for why I’m not as good as my record suggests.”
Even his most committed critics would surely find it hard to poke holes in a win over Parker. Wardley laughs. “That is the plan really! That’s half of the reason why we picked him.
“We thought we’ve beat everyone else they’ve put in front of us, so if we can’t get Usyk who’s the next closest they’re going to give me some respect for?
“I believe in my abilities and my skills so no better way to show that off to people than putting yourself in with one of the best in the world.”
When he steps between the ropes on Saturday night, it will be the eighth time he has done so at the O2. His first fight there came in 2018 on the undercard of Whyte-Chisora 2, early in the night in front of a sea of empty seats.
This has been coming to boiling point for a while. AJ, Fury, Usyk — they’ve got one, two, maybe three fights left and then the division is going to shift
“If I look back at my initial goals when I got into the sport, they’ve been ridiculously surpassed,” he says, leaning back in his chair with a smile. “I thought if I get 15 odd fights, maybe finish with something like an English title, maybe even a British, that would be my last fight. If I could get get on one big show, even at the bottom of the card, and if I can fight at the O2 once in my life, that was the height of my goals.
“To look now at things I’ve done and achieved, the O2 is the venue I’ve fought at the most. At the start of my career, I’d have been happy to fight there once at 5pm before the cameras even rolled.”
Learning from the greatest
Wardley believes in visualisation. As he shadow boxes he will go through how he expects a fight to unfold, drilling in his planned patterns and sequences and predicting how his opponent will respond. If he sits and closes his eyes, how does he foresee the next 12 months playing out?
“A knockout win against Joseph Parker on my record,” Wardley begins confidently. “Then go into the New Year and look to put a fight together with Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed. That’s the No1 goal at the moment. Get through the task ahead of me but once that’s done, it’s all eyes on Oleksandr Usyk.”
The pair have previously shared a ring after Wardley received a sparring request in 2018. Over two trips Wardley spent seven weeks training alongside Usyk, though only once some initial suspicions were overcome.
“It all happened really casually, so casually that I don’t initially believe it,” he remembers. “It was a Facebook message from his team asking if I wanted to go over to Ukraine and spar. I thought it was a joke or a scam. I’d maybe had three fights, so I was wondering how he’d even heard of me.”
Wardley learned as much out of the ring as he did in it, observing how Usyk structured his days between running and gym work, and how specific training sessions were selected. “When you get into boxing, there’s no manual,” he laughs.
In his last six fights Usyk has beaten each of Joshua, Dubois and Fury twice. The Ukrainian boasts a 24-0 record and has been undisputed at cruiserweight and heavyweight. Even believing you can beat him must be difficult enough.
“I’ve got 1000 per cent belief in myself,” Wardley insists. “I’m under no illusions, it’s a tall task. No-one’s been able to beat him yet and he’s beat the best in the division. But I am a different fighter for different reasons. I’m a bit unorthodox in how I go about things and get wins.
“Maybe I’m more confusing and less predictable, who knows. But ultimately, one way or another, I’ll be something different.”
Parker is a serious obstacle to overcome but Wardley still allows himself to consider what could come next.
That in itself is a reminder of how far he has come. The days of daydreaming about English titles and undercard bouts are long gone. One timely right hand on Saturday night could be all it takes to secure a shot at the greatest heavyweight of this generation for the sport’s biggest prize.
“It would be the cherry on the cake of what has been a crazy journey since I’ve been in boxing,” Wardley says. “There have been many pinch me moments of where I used to be and where I am now. That would be the biggest of the lot.”
