Winning a world title, with his beloved Ipswich Town in the Premier League at the same time – that’s the dream for British heavyweight champion Fabio Wardley.
He improved his unbeaten record to 17-0 by stopping David Adeleye in the main supporting contest to Tyson Fury’s fight with Francis Ngannou in Riyadh last month.
But a painful lesson learned when he first stepped inside a boxing gym means it is all about “incremental progression” for the 28-year-old, despite his hunger to mix it at the very top level.
“I finished the session, on the pads, hitting the bag and things. I really enjoyed it and said to the coach ‘Can I spar?’ He said ‘are you sure?’, he told BBC Look East.
“I picked the biggest guy I could find and said ‘what about me and him?’ I jumped in and did a couple of rounds and I got punched all over the ring. I had to take the knee a couple of times with a few body shots, but weirdly I absolutely loved it.
“I loved being at point A, not being so good and getting beaten up and punched round the ring, and then coming back a week later and I’m a bit better. That incremental progression really hooked me for boxing.”
Same debut date as Dubois
It has taken Wardley over six years to climb to the top of the domestic heavyweight tree after coming to the sport late, having no amateur background in the ring.
Coincidentally, he had his first professional contest on the same night as fellow British heavyweight Daniel Dubois in April 2017, albeit on different bills.
Dubois has already had a crack at a world title, losing controversially to Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk in Poland in August after flooring the champion with a body shot in the fifth round.
And Wardley believes it will not be long before he is in contention for a shot of his own.
He is already ranked inside the top 20 by three of boxing’s main governing bodies – his highest placing is ninth with the WBA.
“In boxing there is so much to learn, I was quite a late bloomer so I’ve still got quite a bit more to catch up on,” he said.
“There are a lot of different nuances to it. It seems simple from the outside looking in, you get in there, learn how to throw a few punches, and try and figure out the person in the ring opposite you, when actually there’s so many more little details and intricacies that go with it.
“I’m still figuring bits out, I’m still learning about myself as a boxer and why I fight a certain way.”
The Portman Road connection
Wardley’s rise up the world rankings since beating Nathan Gorman in three rounds to win the British title has mirrored, to an extent, the climb of Ipswich Town, since Kieran McKenna became head coach.
They scored more than 100 goals in winning automatic promotion from League One last season and are currently second in the Championship, having won 12 and lost only one of their first 16 games in the 2023-24 campaign.
Town are among Wardley’s sponsors and he said: “We’re both on such an upward trajectory, it’s great we’re moving alongside each other.
“The club are doing some fantastic things, they’re in such good form – it almost feels like the bubble’s going to burst any moment but it hasn’t and they just keep going.
He continued: “Obviously we’re doing our own thing, we’re going on our own journeys in different sports, but it’s nice to kind of look over and go ‘you boys are going well, want to come to the fight and catch up with me’ – it’s always good to have people like that around you.”
An outdoor fight at Ipswich’s Portman Road ground is very high on Wardley’s boxing bucket list.
“It’s something the club are really keen to do, it’s something I want to do. It’s a timing thing, the right fight at the right time, obviously it’s not (going to be) clashing with games, I don’t want to mess up the season the boys are having,” he said.
“I’m well positioned at the moment and the club are in a great position to kick on and go into the Prem. We’re both teed up very nicely, we’ve both go to keep our heads down and do our jobs.
“It’s definitely something that will happen before the end of my career, one way or the other.”
Mixing with the stars
A British title defence against Olympic bronze medallist Frazer Clarke may be next on the agenda for Wardley, having been talked about for several months.
Win that and the sky may be the limit, although his experiences in Riyadh among some of boxing’s biggest names and celebrity glitterati came as an eye-opener.
He said: “There were quite a few names there. It’s quite surreal walking around because when you’re at these events, you’re supposed to be working, but you’re then just brushing past Mike Tyson, Sugar Ray (Leonard), Roberto Duran, and you give them a quick handshake and move on.
“When you get home you think ‘whoa, I was just mixing with all these people’. It was a wild time. You have to allow yourself that little short moment of soaking it in and realising where you are and who’s around you, being a fan.
“But then, ultimately, you’re there to work, you’ve got a fight coming up at the end of the week, so you can’t get too carried away with the stardom, just focus on tasks and hopefully catch up with those guys after the job is done.”
Fabio Wardley was speaking to BBC Look East’s Jonathan Park
