Fabio Wardley shocked Joseph Parker in a thrilling heavyweight upset to set up a likely showdown with undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk.
The former British and Commonwealth champion outlasted his rival in a modern classic at London’s O2 Arena on Saturday night, producing an electric late stoppage to take the interim WBO belt and status as No1 contender for Usyk, whom he will now be expected to face for all four world titles in boxing’s glamour division in a massive stadium fight in 2026.
Clear underdog Wardley, who was losing on two judges’ scorecards at the time of the stoppage, repeatedly demonstrated a granite chin and incredible powers of recovery in an engrossing firefight against Parker in which momentum continued to swing sharply back and forth from the outset.
Referee Howard Foster stepped in to wave off proceedings in the 11th round after Wardley had hurt Parker with a huge right hand and then followed it up with a furious flurry against the ropes.
A career-best win improves the undefeated Wardley’s professional record to 20-0-1, with his looming shot at becoming undisputed world champion set to crown a remarkable eight-year journey that has seen the Ipswich favourite - who in the build-up to the fight spoke of watching Parker’s world-title clash with Anthony Joshua back in 2016 on TV in the pub - rise from having no amateur experience and only a handful of white-collar fights to reaching the pinnacle of the sport.
Despite his status as an obvious favourite, many questioned why former WBO champion Parker was willing to face Wardley and risk his place as mandatory challenger to Usyk, whom he was in negotiations to fight before the latter sustained a back injury in his last bout against Daniel Dubois, whose illness earlier this year had also deprived the unfortunate Parker of a shot at the IBF title in Riyadh.
Those concerns ultimately proved founded as the New Zealander’s remarkable resurgence under the tutelage of trainer Andy Lee that had seen victories against the likes of Deontay Wilder, Zhilei Zhang, Martin Bakole and Derek Chisora propel him into becoming arguably the second-best heavyweight on the planet came to an end, with Parker dropping to 36-4 as he suffered his first loss since being stopped - also in the 11th round - by Joe Joyce in Manchester in September 2022.
In Saturday’s thoroughly underwhelming co-main event, Juergen Uldedaj easily outpointed Rolly Lambert to claim the vacant IBO cruiserweight title.
Ezra Taylor successfully defended his WBA Continental Gold light-heavyweight title against the courageous Steed Woodall, a late replacement for the injured Lewis Edmondson whose corner threw in the towel in the ninth round of a one-sided contest.
Royston Barney-Smith produced a sublime performance to take the IBF and WBO European super-featherweight titles from Danny Quartermaine, after Mitchell Smith had continued his remarkable resurgence by winning the vacant WBO European lightweight belt against the previously unbeaten Arnie Dawson.
There was a debut professional win for Zayn Ahmed and statement stoppage from Hassan Ishaq on the early prelim bill, plus a Ricky Hatton tribute from the victorious Tony Curtis Jr.
Also victorious early on at the O2 Arena were prospects George Crotty, Jimmy Dean Wood and Anton Esson.
