Fabio Wardley, the new WBO heavyweight champion by virtue of Oleksandr Usyk’s decision to relinquish the belt, admits he’d have preferred to win the title in the ring. Even so, the 30-year-old who made his name as the former recruitment consultant who learned to fight on the white-collar circuit is not losing any sleep over his good fortune.
After all, he more than earned his status as the division’s leading contender with back-to-back stoppage wins over Frazer Clarke, Justis Huni and, most recently, Joseph Parker.
“Am I dreaming, is this real?” Wardley, 20-0-1 (19 KOs), joked when in conversation with Queensberry. “It’s all well and good to say this is how you want things to go. Boxing careers never go exactly as you want them but, seemingly, mine is running to plan and on schedule. I don’t know if I can wrap my head all around it – I look at my team and I wonder how we’ve pulled it off.”
All the talk before his dramatic 11th round victory over Parker in October, one that came with Wardley behind on two of three scorecards, was that the winner would secure their shot at Usyk, then the WBO (and still WBC and WBA) heavyweight king. But Usyk, 38 years old and reportedly battling a back injury, last week confirmed that he was going to give up the belt. With Wardley-Parker being for the WBO interim strap, the Englishman was automatically elevated to that sanctioning body’s heavyweight champion.
“I expected him to fight me,” Wardley said of Usyk. “There was a lot of chat between the camps of Usyk and Parker that Usyk would fight the winner. I knew how it would look and we were told it was something he [Usyk] was up for so I guess it came as a bit of a surprise when he didn’t [agree to fight] and I was elevated [to WBO champion]. Don’t me wrong, I was going to take it all the same.
“It’s bittersweet in a sense. On the one hand it’s a fantastic thing to happen to me but, and not to sound arrogant, I wanted it all, I wanted it to be picture-perfect. Anyone who gets into boxing dreams of becoming world champion so for me to turn my nose up at it and say, ‘It wasn’t exactly how I wanted it to be,’ almost feels ridiculously arrogant. I love to fight, I love to box, but I also love to earn it as well.”
Does he feel that Usyk ‘ducked’ him?
“If it’s anyone else, do you say they have?” Wardley chuckled. “It’s that arrogant thing again. If it was any other fighter [besides me] it would definitely be more of a conversation. You would think he would look at me and think, ‘You know what, this is a style and a fighter I could get through.’ You always want to win it in the ring, you want to hear the announcement, you want the belt to be handed to you, and you want to stand and bask in that moment, which is something that I wasn’t able to do. But, again, it’s nothing I’m going to cry about or turn my nose up at.”
As for who comes next, Wardley is waiting by the phone. His leading five challengers, as per the WBO rankings, are: Moses Itauma, Filip Hrgovic, Zhilei Zhang, Daniel Dubois and Jared Anderson. Others, like Lawrence Okolie, have been calling his name.
“I’m not hard to find, pick up the phone,” Wardley said. “I will be taking all calls.”
Whatever comes next, the story – for now – remains how far he’s come.
“It’s been a fairytale lived from moment to moment,” he surmised. “It’s been a hop, skip and a jump. There’s been big step-ups along the way… It culminated perfectly.”
