Fabio Wardley was crowned the interim WBA Heavyweight Champion on Saturday after claiming an unlikely knockout win over Justis Huni at Portman Road.
The Australian was in total control of the fight and looked to hand Wardley a humbling defeat, but the Brit flipped the narrative with a bolt from the blue knockout to take the win.
It was a fairytale evening for Wardley, who fought the career-defining bout in front of 20,000 adoring supporters at the home stadium of his beloved Ipswich Town. The Tractor Boys only managed one League win at Portman Road this season, but he gave them a fresh reason to celebrate tonight.
The first round was a tentative affair as both men sized one another up, but Huni leapt to a clear lead in the second. He came out swinging and landed a rash of crunching blows to kill off the buzzing atmosphere.
The trend continued in subsequent rounds as Huni continued to comfortably out-box Wardley. His advantage was considerable by the halfway stage, yet to lose a round as he looked to be just one killer blow from securing a landmark win. Wardley, too, looked well beaten.
In round 10, though, that changed. Huni grew complacent, drew too close, and was punished. He opted to trade blows with the haggard Wardley, who caught the Australian with a devastating blow square in the face. To describe it as ‘against the run of play’ would be a considerable understatement.
Huni crashed to the canvas, and Portman Road erupted. Wardley looked more surprised than anyone as he was held aloft by his team, while Huni was left with his head in his hands, wondering where it all went wrong.
But he was gracious in defeat, ruing the ‘split second’ loss of concentration which cost him a famous win.
“That’s my curse,” he said. “I said before this fight, it only takes one split second to switch off, and it happened tonight. Credit to Fabio and his team.”
Wardley himself did not seem to understand how he had pulled the win out of the bag.
“I don’t profess to be an [Oleksandr] Usyk, a Justis Huni, someone with all the skills,” he explained. “But one thing I do know how to do is win fights. Dig deep, find a bit of heart, bite down on that gumshield and find a way to win, and that is what I had to do tonight.
Wardley is now eligible to challenge Usyk to become the undisputed world heavyweight champion. The win takes his career record to 19-0-1, while Huni suffered the first loss of his 13-fight career.
Earlier in the night, Pierce O’Leary produced a textbook performance to down Liam Dillon, in the process retaining his WBC International Super Lightweight title and picking up the vacant EBU European equivalent.
Dillon was facing an uphill battle from the off, but gave a good account of himself as he went the distance with an objectively superior fighter. O’Leary, 25, negotiated the fight with composure unbecoming of his relatively meagre years, exacting a tidy tactical battle as he picked his moments perfectly to exploit Dillon’s vulnerabilities.
He tanked some hard hits of his own, sustaining a smarting bruise near his left eye near the halfway stage, but was ultimately unchallenged en route to confirming his double title.
Earlier in the evening, Team GB Olympic bronze medallist Lewis Richardson won his debut professional bout in impressive fashion as he battered Estonia’s Dmitri Protkunas.
Stephen Ward surrendered a chance to win the vacant WBA Intercontinental Cruiserweight Championship, throwing in the towel in round nine of 10 under fire from Cuba’s Mike Perez.
The undercard opener saw Nelson Hysa knock out Germany’s Patrick Korte in just two rounds to become the WBO European heavyweight champion.
