\u201cJoseph Parker was a world heavyweight champion in 2016 when I was still having white collar fights,\u201d Fabio Wardley says of the contrasting career paths he and his opponent have taken before their crucial bout at the O2 in London on Saturday. \u201cSo it\u2019s been a wild, wild journey for us to reach this point. And if I get through this fight I\u2019ll get a chance to meet Oleksandr Usyk. Fighting Usyk for the world title would be a funny story, remembering how I went to Ukraine to spar him seven years ago. It would feel like I\u2019ve come full circle.\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019re sitting in the back room of a gym in Wardley\u2019s home town of Ipswich and the amiable and intelligent 30-year-old, who is unbeaten after 20 professional contests, allows himself to get a little excited before confronting the serious threat of Parker. He nods when I suggest that it sounds like an outlandish boxing movie or overheated drama series.<\/p>\n
Wardley smiles: \u201cI\u2019ve got a title for Netflix already. It\u2019s going to be called White Collar to World Champion. I think it rolls pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nine years ago, when Parker beat Andy Ruiz Jr to win the WBO world heavyweight title, Wardley was commuting from Ipswich to London where he worked for a recruitment agency. His task then, apart from the occasional scrap on the white collar circuit, was to find jobs for health and social workers. Years later, he risks his health every time he climbs into the ring.<\/p>\n
Wardley\u2019s British and Commonwealth title fight with Frazer Clarke in March 2024 was the most savage example. The canvas resembled a Jackson Pollock painting, with most of the blood shed by Wardley, and both fighters went to dark places during a battle that ended in a draw.<\/p>\n
A bloodied Fabio Wardley lands a right on Frazer Clarke at the O2 in March 2024. Photograph: James Chance\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Clarke told me that he was afraid he might die<\/a> while he lay on his hotel bed after the fight. Wardley grimaces: \u201cI was also badly beat up. I had a cut on my nose, my face was bleeding. My shorts, my outfit, everything was covered in blood. That was my first real touch of how serious and dangerous boxing can be.<\/p>\n \u201cMy head was rocking for days. I was eating only ice-cream and noodles for four days because I couldn\u2019t chew. I had that puffy eye I couldn\u2019t see out of, a split nose, cuts all inside my mouth. In a weird, twisted way, once I\u2019d come back to some normality, it felt good having gone through that. You can be the biggest bluffer to yourself but until you actually do it, and come through the other side, you can\u2019t really say: \u2018OK, that [courage] is in me. That\u2019s there.\u201d<\/p>\n What was he thinking amid the fury of the fight? \u201cI distinctly remember sitting on my stool at the end of round six. I was like: \u2018So everything I\u2019ve just done, I\u2019ve got to do all over again?\u2019 But I only allow myself five seconds before it\u2019s like: \u2018Right, let\u2019s get back to it.\u2019 You\u2019ve got no time to think: \u2018Oh, I hurt and this is not going well.\u2019 Those thoughts evaporate. It\u2019s funny how having someone on the other side of the ring trying to take your head off narrows your focus.\u201d<\/p>\n The heavyweight adds: \u201cThe O2 Arena will always have a piece of my soul. I left a little bit of me in that ring.\u201d<\/p>\n Wardley insists he does not think in detail about the long-term consequences of boxing. \u201cI made peace with it when I decided to take the sport seriously. I\u2019ve accepted that there is a worst-case scenario and that\u2019s how it could go. As long as you\u2019re OK with that, crack on.\u201d<\/p>\n But he offers a layered answer when I ask him to describe his emotions after he knocked out Clarke chillingly<\/a> in the first round of the rematch last October. \u201cConflicting. As fantastic as it is to get a knockout like that, it\u2019s a stark reminder of how very easily that could happen to me. I was obviously full of joy but I was within touching distance of that devastation. I was the one that did it to Frazer. I was closer than anyone to seeing again that brutal side of boxing.\u201d<\/p>\n Fabio Wardley celebrates victory over Frazer Clarke during their British heavyweight title fight in Riyadh in October 2024. Photograph: Richard Pelham\/Getty Images<\/p>\n On Saturday he returns to the same venue when he lost something of his soul. \u201cI might need to find it, and use it, against Parker,\u201d he quips.<\/p>\n Wardley was initially a footballer, who played for the academy at his cherished Ipswich Town<\/a>, and he only discovered boxing years after he met Robert Hodgins. \u201cI\u2019ve known Rob since I was 12,\u201d Wardley recalls. \u201cHe was my mentor in a programme called Positive Futures for unruly children who seemed to continually find themselves in trouble. Rob was always trying to get me into boxing but I was only interested in football.<\/p>\n \u201cYears later, when I was 20, after injuries took me away from football, I gave Rob a call and said: \u2018You\u2019ve been trying to get me in boxing for years. Where\u2019s the gym? I\u2019ll give it a go.\u201d<\/p>\n If he had not met Hodgins, Wardley could have ended up living a life littered with trouble and even criminality. \u201cNot because it\u2019s seductive,\u201d he suggests, \u201cbut more out of necessity. Circumstances mean you look to your left and right and [crime] is all you see. It feels normal. It took me a few years to work my way out of that and it was then I walked into the gym and I never left. I did a boxing session and it wiped me out \u2013 but I was buzzing.<\/p>\n Fabio Wardley with his trainer Robert Hodgins during a training session at the Grange Fitness and Performance Centre, Martlesham. Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to do more. Some of the more experienced lads were hanging for sparring and I asked Rob if I could jump in and he was like: \u2018Are you sure?\u2019 I was really overeager and he allowed me in with one of the older lads, an ex-ABA champion who beat me up for three rounds and dropped me a couple of times.\u201d<\/p>\n Wardley laughs. \u201cMaybe I\u2019m missing a screw because it made me more excited. I was like: \u2018I want to be as good as you, if not better than you.\u2019 That\u2019s what the next few years were all about, catching the next guy in front of me. It was that constant incremental progression.\u201d<\/p>\n He had just four white-collar fights before turning pro and so, when considering the vast amateur experience of many of his opponents, Wardley has sometimes suffered from impostor syndrome. But he has also proved adept at quelling the internal doubts. \u201cI\u2019ve become better at doing that. Every new opponent\u2019s better, the occasion is bigger, so with each different level there is a new enemy to conquer within your own brain. But you build evidence over time. I did XYZ to get me through that situation. I can carry that over and that will drag me through.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Sport in Focus<\/p>\n Sign up to Sport in Focus<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n In his most recent bout, in June, Wardley faced the unbeaten Australian Justis Huni who had been an excellent amateur at international level. Huni is also a more skilled boxer and Wardley came close to his first defeat. Trailing badly on all three scorecards after nine rounds he knocked out Huni with electrifying power in the 10th<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fabio Wardley (right) lands a right on Justis Huni at Portman Road Stadium, Ipswich. Photograph: Steven Paston\/PA<\/p>\n \u201cI was losing that fight but it was never overbearing,\u201d he says. \u201cI always felt I was making small strides. Maybe they went unnoticed but, even when the round as a whole didn\u2019t go my way, I took a little bit from it and thought that worked. Take that, bank that. I was figuring it out because he was very tricky, very good with his feet and hands. So there was a lot of trial and error before we adjusted the gameplan and I got the knockout.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019d built this picture in my head of how it was going to be really strict but Usyk was dancing and laughing<\/p>\n Wardley is realistic when acknowledging the vast gulf that separates even an accomplished amateur and adroit pro such as Huni from Usyk \u2013 an Olympic and two-time undisputed world heavyweight champion. His recognition of Usyk\u2019s superior skill is rooted in first-hand experience of sparring the Ukrainian in Kyiv in 2018.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was very random,\u201d Wardley recalls. \u201cI got a Facebook message in broken English from a member of Usyk\u2019s team. I didn\u2019t believe it because it was quite abrupt: \u201cHi Fabio, do you want to come Ukraine spar Usyk?\u201d It didn\u2019t seem authentic so I asked my manager to look into it. After a day or two we realised it was genuine.<\/p>\n \u201cTwo weeks later I arrived at the airport and they had a guy with my name on a bit of paper. He didn\u2019t say a word, just nodded and actioned me to follow him to his white van which had no windows. We drove for 45 minutes and the guy never spoke. I was like: \u2018This is it. I\u2019m done for. I\u2019m lost in the depths of Ukraine and no one\u2019s ever going to find me again.\u2019 But he drove me to my hotel, gave me some money for food and he pointed me to be waiting tomorrow at 3pm.<\/p>\n \u201cI got to meet Usyk the next day. I\u2019d built this picture in my head of how it was going to be really strict and regimented but he was dancing and laughing and messing around. He came over and he said: \u2018Hi, hello, welcome,\u2019 shook my hand and I immediately settled and I was like: \u2018OK, this is great. He\u2019s a great guy.\u201d<\/p>\n Wardley had been professional for just a year then and so he was staggered by Usyk\u2019s brilliance. But he was not cowed. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I caught him that well but, a couple of times, I landed. He definitely made me pay but it was an incredible experience for three weeks. We all went for dinner every night and he was really nice and inclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n His eyes widen at the giddy prospect that a surprise victory over Parker would probably lead to a world title fight against Usyk. \u201cFingers crossed,\u201d Wardley says with a grin.<\/p>\n Joseph Parker (left) and Fabio Wardley face off during a press conference. Photograph: James Fearn\/Getty Images<\/p>\n He becomes more serious as he concentrates on the mighty challenge awaiting him against Parker \u2013 who has been in brilliant form the last two years while dispatching Deontay Wilder<\/a>, Zhilei Zhang and Martin Bakole<\/a>. \u201cWe have followed different paths to reach this stage,\u201d Wardley says, \u201cbut we both know that if we win this fight there\u2019s a huge chance against Usyk. Parker\u2019s already been to the top of the mountain, a world champion, so he knows what that feels like. He wants it again and he\u2019s within touching distance. So the ambition will put a fire in him that can\u2019t be understated.\u201d<\/p>\n Wardley has the same fire but this is a huge step up for him. He remains confident and, asked if he sees any weaknesses in the vastly experienced New Zealander, says: \u201cYes, there\u2019re a number of what I prefer to call gaps, flaws, in the way he fights. There\u2019re certain habits that we have identified and are going to pick out on the night. But he\u2019s also proved time and again that, when he is caught and knocked down, he always gets back up.\u201d<\/p>\n The former white-collar slugger pauses and then, with quiet intent, he says: \u201cI know it\u2019s going to be very hard. But that\u2019s only to be expected. This is a very long way from where I started.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cJoseph Parker was a world heavyweight champion in 2016 when I was still having white collar fights,\u201d Fabio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-228914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}