Promoter Frank Warren has been around the sport of boxing for decades, and he has seen some massive upset wins scored by British fighters over the years; chief among these upsets being the incredible stunners Randy Turpin (who beat Sugar Ray Robinson in the 1950s) and Lloyd Honeyghan (who stopped Don Curry in the 1980s) pulled off. But Warren, speaking with The Ring, said that if Fabio Wardley managed to defeat Oleksandr Usyk, this upset would top anything and everything that came before it – and not just as far as British boxing goes, but world boxing.
Warren pointed to the fact that Wardley had zero amateur fights, save for one or two white-collar bouts, and that, as such, if he were to topple Usyk, who has achieved so much at both amateur and pro levels, the result would reverberate around the world. We don’t yet know if Wardley, 20-0-1(19) will fight Usyk next or even at all, but as the WBO #1 contender, Wardley will either get his shot or Usyk would face being stripped of his WBO belt.
The “Cinderella Story” of Fabio Wardley
Warren says Wardley’s career has been “Cinderella stuff.”
“If he did it that is – in world boxing – the biggest thing ever,” Warren said of a Wardley win over Usyk. “Not British, world boxing. No amateur experience. A couple of white-collar fights, fighting Joe Blow from Alamo, and then, after 21 fights, he’s the mandatory challenger to Usyk. If Usyk don’t fight him, he’ll be declared champion. It’s like Cinderella stuff, and he’s learnt on the job. He’s gone into every fight probably as an underdog and come through them all.”
It really is amazing how much 30-year-old Wardley has accomplished; his sheer heart and desire often see him overcome fighters Fabio himself would perhaps agree are more naturally talented than he is. Some fight people thought the British title, maybe the European title, was Wardley’s ceiling. But no, the recently crowned WBO interim champion has done so much more than that. And Wardley has got some people thinking he just might be capable of beating Usyk.
Would such a result top Turpin W15 Robinson, and Honeyghan RTD6 Curry? Warren thinks so. Who will you be rooting for if Wardley does fight Usyk next year sometime?