Fabio Wardley has opened up on how he got into boxing and when he recognised Joseph Parker as a rival for the first time.
Parker and Wardley are set to clash on Saturday in the hopes of setting up a clash with Oleksandr Usyk.
Speaking to The Ring Magazine, Wardley admitted watching boxing as a fan rather than a challenger when he saw Parker pick up his first world title in 2016.
“Boxing is not something I had paid much attention to back then
“I remember sitting in The Plough in Ipswich with my friends, watching the fight and just looking at it, having a few beers. I had no real thought, concept or plan watching Parker that I’m going to be after you in a few years, was just watching it as a casual and as a fan.
“He won his first world title when he beat Andy Ruiz in 2016, I was still a white-collar fighter then. So it’s a bit of a funny one.”
Wardley’s rise in the sport has been quite astonishing, starting as a white-collar fighter at 30-years-old to now being in his words “one punch away from fighting Usyk.”
In a short space of time the man from Ipswich has challenged some of the best technical boxers in the division from stopping established Olympic bronze medalist, Frazer Clarke, in a round to a brutal knockout of Justis Huni in his last fight.
“But 10 years on, look where we are. It’s me and him.
“I wasn’t sitting there watching him against [Anthony] Joshua saying ‘I could beat him’ because until then I’d only been fighting other geezers from the pub too.
“I was just watching as a fan of boxing and was intrigued to watch the fight. I was purely watching as a fan, just observing, tuning in like anyone else would, not looking at him, dissecting his game and picking him apart and going, right, I can do this, this, this, this, this.
“Because at that point, I couldn’t do any of that. Even if I did have a look, I wouldn’t be able to pull any of it off. It has taken 10 years’ worth of graft and learning for me to reach a place where I look at him and go ‘all right, cool, I do see them holes, I do see them gaps.'”
In his last three fights Parker has picked up a dominant points win over Deontay Wilder, a hard fought decision over Zhilei Zhang and a brutal second round stoppage of Martin Bakole, getting his career back on track.
One problem Parker has faced is a lack of activity. In the last nineteen months the New Zealander has only boxed a total of two rounds in comparison to Wardley’s 23 in the same span of time.
Wardley once again comes in to this fight as an underdog with many fighters and industry experts writing him off, but as he says, this isn’t something new him.
“It’s fair to say it has been unexpected.
“I think for many fights in a row, people have been saying ‘this is a step too far, this is the opponent that’s too good, the opponent that has the skills that will beat you’. I think the way I have been manoeuvring my way through the division has been a bit unexpected.”
Parker was expected to land a shot at Usyk’s titles after being made mandatory for his WBO belt but has instead had to wait for a fight to materialise with the Ukrainian picking up an injury and being granted an extension.
Wardley will be looking to jump the queue and get his shot at ‘The Cat’ if he returns with a career-best win on Saturday.
“It’s quite an opportune time with your AJs, [Tyson] Fury, even [Oleksandr] Usyk is late 30s as well. So those guys are, not to say necessarily skill-wise, but just age-wise coming to the end and kind of falling off a bit, coming to the back end.
“That leaves a gap, especially in British heavyweight boxing, for someone to stand up and go: ‘I’m the guy’. Now I’m throwing my hat in the ring for that.”
