“I’m excited by the fight, I like the fight,” promoter Frank Warren said of his October heavyweight clash between Joseph Parker and Fabio Wardley at London’s O2 Arena.
The two interim titleholders – Parker has the WBO interim belt while Wardley has the WBA version – will meet on October 25 in an attempt to force the hand of reigning undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.
Rather than remain inactive and wait, Wardley and Parker are fighting for the right to entice Ukraine’s Usyk.
Parker is next in line, but Usyk delayed matters by citing a back injury. Wardley was due to wait longer.
“What happened was, you look at it, he fights twice a year, so if you’re fourth in line on the defenses, you can wait two years before you get the shot,” Warren said of Usyk. “So [Wardley] wants to jump the queue. He sees it as a way of jumping the queue – it’s all or nothing. The winner will get Usyk, or Usyk will vacate the title. If he vacates the title, the winner will be declared champion. … And they’ve insisted that they want to fight. So I said, ‘Fine, you want to fight, and the money you want to fight for, you’ve got to fight somebody in the top 10.’”
Warren admired the heavyweights for taking the gamble and fighting. Knowing Usyk would not fight again in 2025,Warren was more than happy to keep Parker and Wardley busy.
Of Usyk’s claims of a back injury, Warren said: “He ain’t gonna fight this year, and I don’t want to be announcing a fight even if we do one and maybe he gets injured again. “What’s the point?
“You’ve got to take your hat off to [Parker] – he’s a fighting man, as is Fabio. And I like what they both said: ‘When that first bell goes, they’re going to walk to the center of that ring and fight.’ This ain’t going the distance. This is going to be a war.”
The heavyweight division, of course, has come to life in recent years, and many of the leading fighters are signed with Warren’s Queensberry Promotions, including Daniel Dubois, Derek Chisora, Lawrence Okolie, Agit Kabayel and Joe Joyce.
“We’re making it happen. All the heavyweights are fighting, they’re all fighting regularly, they’re getting well paid, and that’s what it’s all about,” said Warren.
“We’ve guided four of our guys that we promote into the mandatory position [Chisora, Wardley, Parker and Okolie]. So they’re making these fights happen.”
Is Warren enjoying the carnage in the heavyweight division?
“Of course I’m enjoying it. I wouldn’t do it otherwise,” he said.
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, is on The Ring ratings panel 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.
