Plenty of credit has been given to both Joseph Parker and Fabio Wardley for agreeing to fight each other this weekend.

The secondary titlists with the WBO and WBA respectively, each could have sat in their positions and waited; waited for Oleksandr Usyk to pick them; waited for Usyk to have been stripped or vacated his titles and boxed for whatever belts came up. 

It is an important contest, and it’s not lost on Wardley that patience could have been rewarded had he opted to hang fire. Instead, he fights New Zealand’s Parker atop a DAZN Pay-Per-View and in the biggest bout of his 20-fight career to date.

“Both of us were planning to go in different routes and we both ran into stumbling blocks in our own respective routes, I guess, or government bodies, organizations, however you want to look at it,” said the 30-year-old from Ipswich. “And I think you’d give credit to us both for saying, ‘You know what, we’re not going to sit still and wait for this problem to resolve itself. We’re going to force hands, force things to move along and force our way through to the front of the pack.’ 

“And again, credit to Parker because he could have maybe taken an easier fight. He’s mandatory [with the WBO], he’s first on the list [to face Usyk]. So he could have sat, maybe waited, or he could have just taken someone nice and easy touches and then fought Oleksandr Usyk in the new year, maybe. But credit to him for wanting to take a test, take a challenge, stay busy, stay active and throw down.”

Wardley’s situation is not dissimilar given he has the WBA’s interim title. He appreciates that, too. 

“I’m not one to sit still and stay stagnant, no matter what’s going on around me,” Wardley, 19-0-1 (18 KOs), said. “I feel like there’s always another avenue, there’s always another angle, there’s always another route. And that is very much something me and the team discussed: not staying still. If things aren’t moving in the way we initially planned or wanted them to, then how do we pivot? What’s the next best option? What’s the next best angle? And in this circumstance, it was Joseph Parker.

“One thing I think you'd be able to say about me is I've never shied away from a fight. I've never said no to anyone. I’ve never turned a fight down, no matter the competitor, no matter the level, no matter the stage I was at. I’ve always pushed myself and strived for more. So this is just another example of that.”

Wardley was in deep in June and starting to drown in the latter stages of his fight with Justis Huni. He was miles behind the Australian on points but in the 10th round found one of the biggest right hands of the year to turn everything around.

But Huni revealed that Wardley could be outboxed, even though Wardley managed to deliver the decisive blow, and as a consequence he has had a lot to work on with trainer Ben Davison.

“Yeah, we’ve had a good little window of time to work on some finer details of things in my game,” Wardley said. “Again, the Justis Huni fight, for all intents and purposes, wasn’t the best night. Got the win in the end and pulled it out of the bag, and that’s a great quality to have. But there are details in my game that we need to improve on; something I’m very much aware of and I’m very much open to. 

“It gave me a lot of homework, a lot of reflection, a lot of looking at myself and looking at things. But again, all good things. If everything went swimmingly, then maybe I wouldn’t look at these areas and go, ‘Maybe you need to adjust and sort this out,’ and I’d be going into this Joseph Parker fight a little less aware of flaws and errors I’ve made. So there’s a list of positives to take from that fight as well. 

“I guess it sounds weird to say when you’re 20-odd fights into the game, but I am still learning on the job because, all in all, I’ve had 24 boxing contests. That’s the entirety of my life now. Joseph Parker has had 40-professional [bouts], and then however many amateur, and then whatever else he’s been up to. So, yeah, I’m still learning, still figuring things out. But, by my own admission, not doing too bad.”

That is perhaps an understatement. Wardley drew a Fight of the Year contender in 2024 with Frazer Clarke, but then blitzed his rival in a round in a rematch. Then came Huni. With his background, Wardley had no right winning any of those three fights and he knows his rivals were favored to be in the position he finds himself in now.

“I think unexpectedly is fair,” he said, asked to assess his progress against his competitors.

“I think for however many fights in a row, people have been saying, ‘This is the step too far, this is the opponent that’s too good, or this is XYZ opponent that has XYZ skills that will beat you.’ So, yeah, I think manoeuvring my way through the division has been a bit unexpected and it’s quite an opportune time as well with your AJs [Anthony Joshuas], your [Tyson] Furys, even Usyk is late 30s as well. Those guys are, not to say necessarily skill-wise, but just age-wise, coming to the end, 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, and I'm throwing my hat in the ring for that.’”

Wardley became familiar with being known as “the white-collar guy” and that became both a blessing and a curse. It was a tag he couldn’t shift.

“I think in the early part of my career, I did find it a bit of a slight. It was constantly brought up. But now, looking at where I’m at, and what I’ve achieved, I think I view it quite differently. It’s almost like a badge of honor to say this is where I came from and this is where I am,” he said. “It shows that, whether you come from a white-collar background or some sort of obscure kind of boxing background, if you have a love, a passion for the sport, and you want to do well, there is a route, there is a way. You need to commit and give yourself to it, but there is a route and there is a way.” 

With talk about Floyd Mayweather and Mike Tyson boxing next year and Jake Paul’s show with Gervonta Davis incoming, Wardley believes he and Parker can be cast as the antidote to some of boxing’s inherent stupidity. It is two top-rated boxers fighting to determine who should fight Usyk next.

“Yeah, I think we are [the antidote],” Wardley added, “especially for British boxing. Because a lot of the big fights are happening overseas, to get two massive top ten, or top five heavyweights in the world, in the capital, at the O2 Arena, is a fantastic thing to be able to give to the fans. It’s a two-sided coin, because we are getting so many great fights that maybe we wouldn’t have got one way or another, but on the other side of it, British fans are some of the best fans in the world, they do love their boxing. That O2 will be vibrating on the 25th, and we know what kind of atmosphere they bring.” 

Huni had come in as a substitute for original foe Jarrell Miller. Wardley and Miller shared a platform of toxicity with the American crossing the line – as he so often does – with his smack talk. 

It was no surprise when Miller didn’t come back after their unsavoury press conference, and Wardley said “yes and no” when asked if he was disappointed when that fight did not come off.

“There’s two sides to that. Someone that wants to get loud and mouthy in your face, you want to shut them up,” the Englishman explained. “But also, there’s another aspect to that. If you’re going to be a time waster, go waste someone else’s time and leave me alone. I don't want to hang around for that, so like I say, I’ve stayed very consistent in my career, and wanted to stay busy, stay active, challenge the best and move forward.”

Of course, Wardley shares a gym – the Ben Davison Performance Centre – with another streaking heavyweight: Moses Itauma. 

Itauma is also in the frame for Usyk, but is there a chance he and Wardley could cross paths?

“Well, ultimately there’s two of us, and there’s four belts, so we have a bit of time,” Wardley replies with diplomacy. “I think that's a bridge to cross if and when we get there. It’s not something to get too presumptive about, or pre-emptive about. I pick up one, he picks up another. If we pick up two each and we’re holding up the division, then maybe it’s a question, maybe it’s not. Because on top of that, it’s not just me and Moses running the game, there are other fighters all across the board, even just in British boxing. You’ve still got Daniel [Dubois] and other names coming through, so there are fighters across the board, locally and internationally as well. There’s a lot of fights out there for us to make. We’re in the same gym, we don’t have to fight each other. There’s a broad spectrum of fighters out there, but look, I think it’s a question that’s relatively far away.”

The Parker fight is almost here. Wardley is again the underdog, but he’s content with that, more so than he ever was sitting around and waiting.

Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, a BWAA award winner, and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.