The last time Andy Lee was preparing Joseph Parker for battle it was February and the opponent was Daniel Dubois. Since then, eight months have passed and a lot has happened. 

For one, Parker never got to share a ring with Dubois on account of Dubois suffering a fight-week illness. Instead, that February, Parker fought and stopped Martin Bakole, the replacement flown in at 48 hours’ notice for a king’s ransom. 

With no time to stew on it, from there Lee hooked up with Ben Whittaker, the light-heavyweight prospect, and guided him to an impressive second-round stoppage of Liam Cameron in April. That was then followed by Lee guiding another of his newest recruits, Hamzah Sheeraz, to an equally impressive fifth-round stoppage of Edgar Berlanga in July. 

Come September, Lee was back with Donovan and Donovan was back with Crocker. This time they fought at Belfast’s Windsor Park, with the IBF welterweight title at stake, yet the emotions after the second fight were no different than the first: disappointment, frustration, regret. Though spared the controversy of fight one, Donovan was no less upset when learning that two of the three ringside judges felt he had narrowly lost. 

That wound, still fresh, has yet to produce a scab, much less heal. However, time continues and so does life. It’s October now. 

Now, eight months after leading Joseph Parker into battle against Martin Bakole, Lee is getting ready to walk Parker into another battle on Saturday at London’s O2 Arena. The opponent on this occasion is Fabio Wardley, the unbeaten heavyweight from Ipswich, but everything else remains pretty much the same as before.

“I wouldn’t say I’m excited by the fight,” said Lee. “I don’t get excited by any of the fights – that’s the wrong word. It’s one battle after another. That’s how I look at it. My drive and hunger is the same for every fight: to win and improve the fighters.”

When not in the gym trying to improve fighters, Lee, 41, is either performing the duties of a husband and father or winding down by watching movies. His referencing Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” to explain his current state of mind is therefore no accident or coincidence. In fact, there is, for Lee, a loose correlation between the two – life as a coach, that particular film. If, for example, the film explores the notion that nothing changes in battle and that every battle fought, regardless of its outcome, ultimately endures, that is something Lee can understand. He also understands the repetitive, circuitous nature of a battle and how everything we do in the past often impacts our future. 

Even in the gym, Lee, a former WBO middleweight champion, will spend his days teaching young fighters many of the same lessons he was once taught by coaches in his past. All he can do is then hope that they listen, as he did, and show a willingness to be steered down the right path. All he can do, as their coach, is attempt to relate. 

He knows, in the case of Parker, how it feels to be a thirtysomething fighter trying to find the same motivation they had prior to achieving certain goals. “I think so,” Lee said when asked if Parker, a former WBO heavyweight champion, remains motivated at the age of 33. “He is showing me that in the gym at least. I just think he has secured himself financially now and been a world champion, so every win now… it’s not like a bonus, but it’s about legacy – for him, his family, and his children. That’s what I think it is for Joseph now. But he still has the desire to become a two-time world champion, I think. That’s his goal. This is another step towards that.”

The next step for Parker brings him into contact with Fabio Wardley – and potentially Wardley’s right hand. It is a fight plenty in Parker’s position would perhaps look to avoid, given both Wardley’s threat and the fact Parker, 36-3 (24 KOs), appears on the brink of challenging Oleksandr Usyk for the world heavyweight title. However, Parker, cut from a different cloth, believes it does no good to sit around and wait. He, like his coach, wants only to be busy.

“It’s a risky fight and a dangerous fight because Wardley is a big puncher, as we all know,” said Lee. “He’s a very game fighter. He comes to fight. So it should be a good heavyweight clash. 

“Joe has got the experience and has fought at a higher level. But when you’re in with a puncher all of that can go out of the window. It’s like a Second Division club playing a Premier League club in the FA Cup – on that one day they could beat them if they’re not on the ball.”

Much has been made of Wardley’s unique start to life in boxing. Being a late bloomer is one thing, and he was, but Wardley also came from a white-collar background and eschewed the traditional amateur grounding so many other professionals receive before turning over. This resulted in a unique origin story, as well as a unique style heavyweights have so far found difficult to decode. Rules are broken and legends wince whenever Wardley moves or throws a punch, but that hardly matters when the result of his rule-breaking ends in victory – often decisive. Not only that, Wardley possesses, in the form of his punch power and grit, two things that cannot be taught regardless of how long one spends in a vest and headguard. 

“He's very unusual, in terms of his background and where he has come from,” said Lee of Wardley, 19-0-1 (18 KOs). “He’s actually beaten some very good boxers before: Nathan Gorman, Frazer Clarke, David Adeleye, and Justis Huni. Those are credible names. A lot of these guys have had long and good schooling and yet he has beaten them. It’s not always been because he is more powerful, either. Sometimes there has been more to it than that.” 

Lee added: “Joe has been in with genuinely big punchers: [Zhilei] Zhang, and [Deontay] Wilder, Bakole even. He has been able to neutralize each of them and go on to win. That’s what I mean when I talk about his experience. But he still has to be wary of what Wardley can do. We’re taking him very seriously.”

Everything is serious for Parker and Lee these days. The fights are serious, the gym sessions are serious, and things could get even more serious in the future. For instance, as the WBO’s number one-ranked heavyweight, there could soon be numerous heavyweight titles on the line and Oleksandr Usyk, the world’s best heavyweight, standing in the opposite corner. 

“For me, the best heavyweights in the world right now are Usyk, who you have to have as number one, and then Joseph at number two,” said Lee. “Forget all the hype, all the records, and who beat who where and when, if you watch what these guys actually do in the ring, it’s Usyk and Joseph at the top.”

Which is why, Lee would argue, it makes perfect sense for them to fight next. In fact, some would even suggest that they should have fought this year and that Parker had every right to be disappointed when Usyk requested an extension from the WBO regarding his obligation to fight his mandatory challenger from New Zealand.

“It’s been frustrating for him,” revealed Lee, “but I think [Parker’s] just relieved he’s fighting. He fought in March of 2024 [against Zhang], and then he fought in February [against Bakole], and that was only two rounds. He’s just relieved and happy to be fighting again this year. He just wants to do his job.”

On Saturday, that’s what they will all be doing. Parker will be doing his job, Lee will be doing his job, and Wardley and his team will be doing their jobs, too. Each will be confident in their ability to carry out these jobs primarily because for all of them the job in question is something they know inside out. They have, in other words, been here before. They have fought many battles and know exactly what a battle looks like and how one feels. 

“I expect it to be a bit of a firefight really,” said Lee. “If Wardley lands, he kind of goes gung-ho and tries to get you out of there. Joe has to be prepared for that. I think Joe will box and win most of the rounds, but I also think it will catch fire – probably pretty early on.”