Fabio Wardley has become the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) heavyweight champion – and 11th British heavyweight champion – after Oleksandr Usyk vacated the title.
The Ukrainian fighter informed the WBO he would not proceed with a mandatory title defence against the 30-year-old after “thoughtful consideration”.
Wardley became the number one challenger to Usyk after upsetting Joseph Parker in a thrilling October clash.
It caps a remarkable rise for the former Ipswich Town academy footballer, who had no amateur background in boxing before he turned professional in 2017.
The 6ft 5in fighter boasts an undefeated record with 20 wins from his 21 contests – including an impressive 19 knockouts.
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Wardley’s ‘unbelievable’ journey to world champion
Wardley’s team said it was “unbelievable” he had gone from white collar boxing to heavyweight world champion.
The Ipswich-born fighter originally started in white collar boxing – a form of the sport where participants train and compete in bouts, usually for charity or fitness. Despite his limited experience in the ring, he stepped straight into his professional career with no amateur fights.
“Fabio has really captured the public’s imagination with his Cinderella-type story and he’s an exciting fighter,” his promoter Frank Warren Warren told BBC Radio Suffolk.
“This is an unbelievable story. Somebody who has never ever had an amateur fight; he’s just had a couple of white collar fights and he’s gone on to become champion.
“Not just Suffolk, but the whole nation should be proud of him.”
Matt Brennan, part of Wardley’s team, said it was an “amazing achievement from where Fab has come from to where he is today” – even if he did not think it was the “way you would expect to win a world title”.
“It is a shame for Fab and us because it would have been great to see Fab win the world title in the ring… he can now call himself a world champion and nobody can ever take that away from him,” he added.
What’s next for Wardley?
At present, young Briton Moses Itauma is the number one contender on the WBO’s rankings.
The 20-year-old has a bout scheduled for 24 January, 2026 against Jermaine Franklin Jr at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester.
The outcome of that could dictate what happens next for Wardley and the WBO belt.
Who are the previous British heavyweight world champions?
Wardley follows in the footsteps of Daniel Dubois, Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, David Haye, Lennox Lewis, Herbie Hide, Henry Akinwande, Frank Bruno, Michael Bentt and Robert Fitzsimmons as Britons to have become world heavyweight champions in the sport’s history.
Of the 11, Wardley becomes the sixth to do this with the WBO belt, with both Fury and Joshua among those to have been recent WBO heavyweight champions.
No British boxer has won all four major belts at the same time, but three of them have held three of boxing’s four major heavyweight belts simultaneously.
Joshua held the WBO, IBF and WBO belts at the same time during two spells as champion, while Fury also had all three during his first championship run.
During Lewis’ second reign as champion between 1997 and 2001, he held the WBA, WBC and IBF titles together.
Lewis’ second title reign of four years was the longest of any British world heavyweight champion, successfully defending the belts nine times.
‘Wardley’s journey is the most remarkable’
Wardley’s journey to the top is perhaps the most remarkable.
His story reads like the script of a movie – from white collar boxing to world champion. Life in the professional ranks has been a steep learning curve.
But what he lacks in experience, he more than makes up for in grit, determination and a thunderous right hand.
His come-from-behind wins against both Justis Huni and Joseph Parker were proof of his incredible punching power.
While he doesn’t have a video moment of being presented with the belt in the ring, his dramatic 11th-round victory in London against New Zealand’s Parker will live long in the memory – and showed a champion’s heart.
Of the current crop of British heavyweights, I doubt many would have predicted the former Ipswich Town academy footballer would be the one to finish the year as a world champion.
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