{"id":296018,"date":"2025-11-20T18:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T18:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/296018\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T18:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T18:55:10","slug":"fabio-wardley-says-he-has-to-earn-the-right-to-call-himself-world-heavyweight-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/296018\/","title":{"rendered":"Fabio Wardley says he has to ‘earn the right’ to call himself world heavyweight champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wardley’s ascent to world champion has been remarkable. He only took up boxing at 20, emerging from the unlicensed white-collar circuit, and has stopped 19 opponents in his 20 professional wins.<\/p>\n

Known for his knockout power, he was behind on the scorecards against Justis Huni in June<\/a> before producing a one-punch finish in the 10th round. He also appeared to be trailing Parker before stopping the New Zealander in the 11th.<\/p>\n

Wardley says he wants to cement his champion status by defending the title in the ring. However, discussions over an opponent for his first defence are yet to begin.<\/p>\n

“There’s a long list of [fighters] that could be opponents out there,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Some great domestic fights, some great international fights as well. We could do it in the UK, we could do it abroad, who knows?”<\/p>\n

Wardley aims to make a couple of defences before pursuing unification bouts late next year, whether against Usyk – if he still holds the belts – or another champion.<\/p>\n

One fighter Wardley would “not shy away” from is two-time world champion Anthony Joshua, who faces YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in December.<\/p>\n

Both Wardley and Joshua train under Ben Davison, although unconfirmed reports suggest Joshua may no longer be working with the Essex-based coach. <\/p>\n

“I’d never say no to anyone. AJ is one of the reasons that I got into boxing,” Wardley said.<\/p>\n

“He kind of changed the face of UK boxing from when he got into the sport and really brought it back to life in a sense. <\/p>\n

“It would be an honour to share the ring with him.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wardley’s ascent to world champion has been remarkable. He only took up boxing at 20, emerging from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-296018","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296018","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=296018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}