Joseph Parker and Fabio Wardley, the respective WBO and WBA interim titlists, will each risk their positions on the heavyweight ladder by fighting each other at London’s O2 Arena on Saturday night. Though this is exactly the way it should be – contenders earning the right – there is something deeply commendable about it occurring in 2025 when it would have been effortless for both fighters to park backsides on existing rungs, polish those interim baubles, and wait for an invitation from the top.
Even so, much of the talk on social media surrounding this contest, and it’s a good one staged by Queensberry Promotions, is the addition of a price tag which those who wish to watch legally on DAZN will have to pay, even if they already subscribe to the streaming service. It certainly reignited the ol’ pay-per-view debate, but the decision to buy, and thus whether Parker-Wardley is worthy of PPV, is one for the consumer to make. What is certain, however, is that the ongoing desire to put boxing behind a paywall does very little to build interest in the sport among the wider public.
Parker, regardless, is no stranger to earning box-office wages. Though his recent bouts have been part of Riyadh Season blockbusters, all behind paywalls, it’s worth noting, too, that comparable match-ups with Joe Joyce and Dillian Whyte were also deemed too good to give away for free. Throw in that aforementioned influx of cash from Saudi Arabia – of which Wardley has also enjoyed a chunk in the recent past – and, from a promoter’s perspective, it must be difficult to compete without such luxurious financial assistance.
Parker, 36-3 (24 KOs), certainly has the most to lose in this contest. A former WBO champion who was widely written off following that 2022 loss to Joyce, the 33-year-old has recently won enough meaningful contests to suggest an opportunity to challenge Oleksandr Usyk should already be secure. Parker closed out 2023 with an upset decision win over Deontay Wilder, followed that by outscoring Zhilei Zhang, and, in February, finished the highly regarded Martin Bakole inside two rounds.
The rise of Ipswich, England’s Wardley – though admirable when one considers his white-collar grounding – doesn’t quite compare to that of his New Zealander opponent. A knockout of David Adeleye, in 2023, was impressive enough but merely confirmed his place as a promising, hard-hitting British heavyweight. A subsequent draw with Frazer Clarke the following year, in a rousing 12-rounder, suggested some limitations before he clouted his rival with such force in the opening round of their rematch it appeared that a chunk of the Olympic bronze medallist’s skull had been dislodged. Since then, in June, Wardley upended a heavy deficit on the cards against Justis Huni in the 10th round when another frightful swipe from his right hand turned out the lights. Though that victory earned him one of several available slices of the WBA title – the somewhat flavourless interim variety – the truth remains that Wardley, 19-0-1 (18 KOs), is yet to defeat anyone who could rightly be regarded among the world’s best.
Without any further investigation, picking Parker to gain what many believe Clarke deserved in his first bout with Wardley, and what Huni seemed to be coasting towards – a 12-round points win – is almost of the no-brainer variety. Wardley, though blessed with serious physical and psychological strength, looks ill-equipped to deal with a fighter who has, under coach Andy Lee, morphed into a thoughtful assassin; one skilled, strong, and wily enough to navigate his way out of trouble should it occur. Moreover, not only does Parker’s current form suggest he’s at his peak, he’s also the consensus choice (among those who no longer count Tyson Fury as an active fighter) as the second-best heavyweight in the world; to confidently predict that Wardley is on the brink of rising so high seems almost preposterous when his experience, achievements, and form are compared with those of Parker.
But a case can also be made that Parker’s current prowess is being exaggerated. On paper, the wins over Wilder, Zhang and Bakole compare favorably to any current heavyweight aside from Usyk. Yet the Wilder who was listless and off the pace against Parker had all the hallmarks of a fighter in sharp decline; Zhang, 40-something and gasping for oxygen by the halfway mark, managed to twice drop Parker with the kind of power that Wardley seems to possess; Bakole, meanwhile, entered his bout with Parker out of shape mere hours after stepping off a plane to accept the short-notice assignment.
When all of that is considered, another argument starts to form: that Parker – ageing gracefully but ageing all the same – has been artfully matched and in Wardley, comparatively young and ferocious, he meets the first opponent who can rightly claim to have been at their peak since he came unstuck against Joyce three years ago. Therefore, the notion that Wardley, whose fast counter right hand is arguably the most destructive weapon in the division, can win this fight ventures out of the realms of preposterousness and into the world of possibility.
The case for Wardley, guided by the tactically minded Ben Davison, can be further strengthened when looking deeper into Parker’s past. Before the knockout loss to Joyce came two gruelling struggles with the war-torn Derek Chisora and, directly after Joyce, he failed to impress when going the full 10 rounds with the cruiserweight Jack Massey. Go deeper still to the knockdowns he suffered against Dillian Whyte, and the likelihood of Wardley hurting Parker only becomes more realistic, particularly when one also considers the favorite’s tendency to leave his left hand low.
Parker, however, knows how to ride punches and take the sting from them. He’s been in with at least 10 different opponents who were proven world-class contenders or champions at the time of facing them, and, perhaps crucially, his confidence is at an all-time high. Though it’s true that Wilder, Zhang and Bakole were not in peak physical condition, it’s also true that nobody regarded those assignments as easy heading in; it is purely down to Parker’s dominance (aside from the odd moment against southpaw Zhang) that invites the subsequent picking of holes.
And the pick here is for Parker, over the 12-round championship distance, to show his class again and finally secure his already deserved shot at Usyk in a world heavyweight championship match far more befitting of box-office status.
