“Joseph Parker was a world heavyweight champion in 2016 when I was still having white‑collar fights,” 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. “So it’s been a wild, wild journey for us to reach this point. And if I get through this fight I’ll 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’ve come full circle.”
We’re sitting in the back room of a gym in Wardley’s 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.
