Fabio Wardley To Return In April – But Who Will He Fight? Dubois, Zhang, Hrgovic, Itauma?

Recently elevated to full WBO heavyweight champ, this after Oleksandr Usyk opted to vacate the belt, Fabio Wardley will fight again in April. So has confirmed promoter Frank Warren, who spoke once again with Talk Sport. Wardley, who stopped Joseph Parker in a WBO interim title fight last time out, is understandably disappointed he is not getting the Usyk fight, but Warren says the unbeaten 30 year old has “plenty of options.”

Wardley, 20-0-1(19) has shown he is one heck of a tough guy, a fighter who can never be written off in any fight until it is over with. Wardley is also a very dangerous puncher, and so many of us were intrigued to see how Usyk would have handled Wardley, or if he in fact could have done so. Things could change down the road, but as of right now, Usyk is said to have no interest in fighting Wardley; with Usyk instead set to next defend his three remaining world titles against Deontay Wilder.

Who Will Wardley Face in His First WBO Title Defense?

So, what about Wardley?

“Before the (Parker) fight, Usyk did say he’d fight the winner. And now he’s changed his mind. He obviously feels the risk to the reward isn’t justified,” Warren said. “We will see where we go. Fabio will be returning to the ring in April, I am meeting up with him and his manager next week. There are plenty of options.”

While Wardley has not expressed any real interest in fighting current WBO No1 contender Moses Itauma, who he shares the same trainer with in Ben Davison, we have seen other “fighting friends” get it on in the past, so who knows? Looking at the current WBO rankings, we see that Zhilei Zhang is right up there, as is Filip Hrgovic. While one fight that has been mentioned by some people is one between Wardley and Daniel Dubois.

It really will be interesting to see who Warren announces as Wardley’s first WBO title challenger.