Parker on gamble against Wardley: 'This is all or nothing for me'
WBO interim heavyweight titlist embraces risking mandatory position as the next challenger for undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk
A note to Fight Freaks Unite readers: I created Fight Freaks Unite in January 2021 and eight months later it also became available for paid subscriptions for additional content — and as a way to help keep this newsletter going and for readers to support independent journalism. If you haven’t upgraded to a paid subscription please consider it. If you have already, I truly appreciate it! Also, consider a gift subscription for the Fight Freak in your life.
As the WBO interim heavyweight titleholder, Joseph Parker, who has been on an outstanding run over the past three years, was in the organization’s mandatory position to be the next challenger for the winner of the July 19 rematch between three-belt and lineal champion Oleksandr Usyk and IBF titleholder Daniel Dubois.
Parker had stepped aside to allow all the belts to be at stake in the fight, which Usyk won in devastating fashion to become the undisputed heavyweight champion for the second time. He knocked out Dubois — who in February had pulled out of an IBF defense against Parker during fight week, claiming illness — with ease in the fifth round. Usyk beat Dubois even more easily than he had when he knocked him out in dominant fashion in the ninth round of what was then Usyk’s WBA mandatory defense in their first encounter in 2023.
Parker, who drilled late replacement Martin Bakole in the second round after Dubois pulled out in February, very much wanted Usyk next, as in before the end of this year. But Usyk, who had been officially ordered to begin negotiations for the mandatory with Parker, told the WBO that a nagging back issue would sideline him for a few months and he was given a medical exception to delay the defense.
Parker was faced with a decision. He could sit and wait for Usyk, whose timeframe to return was unclear (as was whether he would return at all or retiree), or he could stay active and risk his mandated title shot, which was due next.
After the win over Bakole, Parker returned home to New Zealand, where he worked with strength and conditioning coach George Lockhart to stay in shape while asking his team — manager David Higgins and co-promoters Frank Warren of Queensberry and Spencer Brown of Goldstar — to “lock in on the fight with Usyk.”
But with Usyk sidelined by the back problem the fight with Parker was simply not going to happen this year, although last week Usyk announced that his back was better, he had returned to light training and was preparing to fight in 2026.
“When the months were going by, days and weeks and then months, I just thought to myself, you know stuff this, I just want to fight. Give me anyone and everyone,” Parker told Fight Freaks Unite.
He had decided to risk his position as the due mandatory opponent and will defend the interim belt against England’s unbeaten big puncher Fabio Wardley in the headliner of a Queensberry Promotions card dubbed “All or Nothing” on Saturday (DAZN PPV, 1:30 p.m. ET, $59.99 in U.S., £24.99 in U.K.) at The O2 in London.
Their ring walks are due to commence at approximately 5:30 p.m. ET and the WBA interim title Wardley won in June, when he rallied from way down on the scorecards to starch Justis Huni with a single right hand in the 10th round, will be stripped from him once the fight begins as the WBO does not permit interim titles to be unified.
“These two guys have stepped up. Neither of them needed to make this fight,” Warren said. “Joe Parker, he’s the interim champion. The WBO already ordered that Usyk has to defend his belt against him, but he was injured. And Joe said he wants to fight anyway. And Fabio, again, he’s in a fantastic position. He only had to wait for his time and he would’ve got a crack at it. He said ‘no, I want to fight as well.’ And not only that, ‘I want to fight Joe Parker because he gives me a chance to jump the queue.’ You have to take your hat off to them. They’re fighting men — proper, proper, fighting men.”
