'My show would be White Collar to World Champion'

The former Ipswich academy footballer Fabio Wardley fights Joseph Parker hoping victory will secure a title shot against Usyk, with whom he once sparred in Ukraine

- Donald McRae

"Joseph Parker was a world heavyweight champion in 2016 when I was still having white-collar fights," Fabio Wardley says of the contrasting career paths he and his opponent have taken before their bout at the O2 in London on Saturday. "So it's been a wild journey. And if I get through this fight I'll get a chance to meet Oleksandr Usyk. Fighting Usyk for the world title would be a funny story, remembering how I went to Ukraine to spar him seven years ago. It would feel like I've come full circle.

We're in the back room of a gym in Wardley's home town of Ipswich and the amiable and intelligent 30-year-old, who is unbeaten after 20 professional contests, allows himself to get a little excited before confronting the serious threat of Parker. He nods when I suggest that it sounds like an outlandish boxing movie or overheated drama series.

Wardley smiles, and says: "I've got a title for Netflix already. It's going to be called White Collar to World Champion. I think it rolls pretty well."

Nine years ago, when Parker beat Andy Ruiz Jr to win the WBO title, Wardley was commuting from Ipswich to London to work for a recruitment agency. His task then, apart from the occasional scrap on the white-collar circuit, was to find jobs for health and social workers. Years later, he risks his health every time he climbs into the ring.

Wardley's British and Commonwealth title fight with Frazer Clarke in March 2024 was the most savage example. The canvas resembled a Jackson Pollock painting, with most of the blood shed by Wardley, and both fighters went to dark places during a battle that ended in a draw.

Clarke told me he was afraid he might die on his hotel bed after the fight. Wardley grimaces: "I was also badly beat up. I had a cut on my nose, my face was bleeding. My shorts, my outfit, everything was covered in blood. That was my first real touch of how serious and dangerous boxing can be.