Heavyweight contenders Joseph Parker and Fabio Wardley both showed confidence at the final press conference before they meet at London’s O2 Arena on Saturday.
The clash of interim champions – Parker with the WBO and Wardley with the WBA – sees the resurgent New Zealander Parker take on the undefeated Wardley in a high stakes clash dubbed All or Nothing by promoters Queensberry.
“[It’s] massive for the pair of us and me at this stage of my career,” said Wardley, the underdog, who is 19-0-1 (18 KOs). “So far, so good for me. Every time I do step up, I rise to the occasion and rise to the challenge and Saturday’s going to be no different… The separation between where Joe is and where people think I am has been a common theme with me throughout my career. It’s nothing new. Every time I step up to a new level it’s always, ‘This is the step too far’ until I come through and win. Then it’s, ‘Is the next step too far.’”
Wardley, 30, said he is motivated by proving the doubters wrong, and he does not like being labelled as a puncher only.
“I don’t know if it’s a positive or negative,” the Englishman said. “Everyone focuses on my power, knocking opponents out, and it draws away from my actual boxing skill and ability. I think everyone in boxing knows it takes more than muscles and a bit of strength to knock someone out. It takes practice, timing, precision and all those lead into boxing IQ… If you think I’m going to be running around that ring with my right hand cocked ready to go, there’s a lot more you [Parker] and the team will need to prepare for.”
Parker, 33, did not have much to say, but promised to “smash” Wardley at the end of the press conference.
“For me, this is all or nothing, really,” said the 36-3 (24 KOs) Parker. “I’m not really thinking about losing this fight. I’m in this fight to win, and when I win, I’ll move on to the next fight. I respect my opponent and what he’s done in his career and how he’s prepared for this fight, but I’m a different level.”
Promoter Frank Warren spelled out how important the fight is in the grand scheme of things at heavyweight. The winner will be in pole position to take on undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk.
“This is the most significant fight at the moment in the heavyweight division,” said Warren. “It’s the best one out there. These two guys have stepped up, neither of them needed to make this fight. Joe Parker is the WBO interim champion and they’ve already ordered that Usyk has to defend his belt against him but Usyk is injured. Joe said he wants to fight anyway and Fabio is also in a fabulous position and he only had to wait his time and he would have got a crack at it and he said, ‘No, I want to fight as well,’ and not only that, ‘I want to fight Joe Parker because it gives me the chance to jump the queue.’ And you’ve got to take your hat off to them, they’re fighting men… Mr Usyk has said he will take that fight early next year, so that is the prize. It’s all or nothing for the winner.”
The fight is on pay-per-view on DAZN, and the streaming platform has come in for criticism but making it a paid for show, but DAZN’s Michael Ridout said: “This is an incredible fight. This has all the ingredients of a heavyweight classic.”
