Fabio Wardley says he expects Joseph Parker to be cautious and less willing to engage against him in their main line-up in London on Saturday night. He says that if WBO interim heavyweight champion Parker (36-3, 24 KOs) has less activity on offense, he’ll have to “manage” the firepower he’s going to unleash on him.
Gold rush to Usyk’s throne
WBA’s interim champion, Wardley (19-0-1, 18 KOs) is not going to hold back and fights on Saturday night at O2 Arena in London. He wants the pot of gold that awaits him against undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk in 2026. Fabio knows that the best way to get it against a boxer-puncher like Parker is to take the fight to him.
Wardley, 30, believes that Parker’s instincts will cause him to engage with him in brief gunfight moments. He’s not going to hold back and bombard Fabio with power shots like Frazer Clarke did in their rematch on October 12, 2024. If he does, Wardley will take him out quickly, perhaps in the first two rounds.
He smelled fear in Parker
“I think he’ll be tactical in spaces. He’ll be careful. He’ll try to avoid breakout moments, but I think there’s an instinctive nature in him that will just want to get involved,” said Fabio Wardley. Box nowabout Joseph Parker. “I’m going to go in with my game plan and style and fight the way I want to fight. That’s for him to manage.”
Parker’s last fight against the badly out of shape 310-lb Martin Bakole was not indicative of how he is expected to fight on Saturday. He knocked Bakole out in the first round and used his slow, heavy movements to knock him out on February 22, 2025 in Riyadh.
Andy Lee’s Defensive Blueprint
Parker will surely return to the defensive style he displayed in his wins over aging veterans Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang. It was a game plan put together by Parker’s trainer, Andy Lee, and it worked well against those two slower heavyweights.
“If he’s the fighter with less activity, generally doing a little bit less, it’s for him to manage me and my output. I can carry all the way through power. Box well, box comfortably and knock him out. Any kind of win is really enough of a statement,” Wardley said.
Last updated on 24/10/2025
