Ahead of his eagerly anticipated rematch with Frazer Clarke, won in a chilling round, Wardley spoke to Boxing News’ Declan Taylor.
FABIO WARDLEY let the dust settle on his unforgettable draw with Frazer Clarke for two whole weeks before he sat down, poured himself a glass of wine and relived it in full.
By then, he was able to chew properly again, the aches and pains had just about cleared and the facial damage was healing nicely. Inside, though, it still hurt.
Wardley laughs heartily when he is asked exactly how it felt to watch back the fight that had so deeply engrossed everyone who had witnessed it initially.
“Ummm,” he says. “I don’t know how to explain that one.
“I gave it some time before I watched it. I felt like given the emotion of the fight and how I felt the next day, the buzz around it and the whole occasion, I wanted to let that die down before I tried to dissect it.
“I obviously wasn’t happy with the performance either. I gave myself a generous 6/10 for the performance so I wasn’t too keen to rush and watch it either. But I gave it a couple of weeks and had a glass of wine to settle myself into it.
“I watched it back, analysed it and thought ‘Okay, that was some war’. I was proud of that but at times I was just thinking, ‘Why did you do that?’ I became the typical armchair boxing fan saying, ‘What did you do that for?’
“It was mixed emotions. I was upset, not gutted because I still retained my belts and got to go home with those so I’m happy with that.”
In the end, the scorecards were such that it was Wardley’s knockdown of Clarke in the fifth round which ultimately secured him a draw. Without it, Clarke would have won on a split. It also meant that this remarkable chapter in the British heavyweight division could not be closed without an immediate rematch, with the men now set to do it all over again in Riyadh on Saturday night.
Until that night, on March 31, British and Commonwealth champion Wardley had won all 16 fights since a four-round points victory on his professional debut inside the distance. But, against Clarke, he displayed the sort of heart he had never even come close to showing previously.
“It’s more so for you lot,” he says. “You lot found out things about me that I already knew were in me. I just hadn’t had the opportunity to prove it but I knew I had the heart, I knew I could dig deep. I knew I could power through 12 rounds if I had to because in every camp. I put the work in and train hard. I don’t skip a session, I do everything properly. So I knew all the tools, all the skills and all the attributes were there – it’s just sometimes you just need the right dance partner to show it and he was that.
“But in the end, he only stayed up because I let him. I messed up my own work and the only reason he stayed in that fight is because I rushed my work. It wasn’t because I couldn’t hurt him because I’ve watched the fight back 10, 15, 20 times over now and I damaged him loads of times. It was a clear knockdown and I damaged him loads at other times – but it was just the follow up. If I had done that better, or if when I did knock him down it had been earlier in the round, then I would have got him out of there. You’ve always seen I’ve been a clinical finisher.
“With me, you kind of know what you’re going to get. You see what I’m about, that’s entertainment and getting stuck in. I’m a heavyweight that lands big punches and maybe takes a few too many but one way or another I get the job done. There will be the same focus, mentality and approach in this fight, too.”
What that suggests is equal levels of violence and, therefore, bloodshed. A photograph of the canvas after the fight went viral on the night, given its resemblance to a Jackson Pollock classic while, by the end, the bridge of Wardley’s nose looked like it had almost turned inside out. So how did the British champion feel when he woke up on April Fools’ Day?
“Like I’d been punched directly in the face for 35 minutes,” he says with another laugh.
“Every muscle in my body ached, my face hurt and I was on super noodles for a good three days. I couldn’t really chew properly. But it was all just bruising. I know everyone made a big fuss about the nose but it was purely just skin, it was never broken. Being punched there made it look way worse that it was and I could still breathe through it. It wasn’t in the way, it just made for some better photos, to be honest.
“It won’t be a factor this time, either. This is the most I’ve sparred out of my last three fights and it hasn’t gone once. It has held up perfectly fine.”
What the draw against Clarke did slow was Wardley’s otherwise rapid ascent towards the higher reaches of the heavyweight division. He had seen off gatekeepers like Eric Molina and scythed through his two other domestic rivals, Nathan Gorman and David Adeleye, in three and seven rounds respectively.
He remains in the Top 10 with three of the four major sanctioning bodies and, at just 29 and with very few miles on the clock, Wardley looks perfectly placed in a division where the likes of Oleksandr Usyk, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua are all deep into their 30s.
Daniel Dubois, only 27, seemed to signal a new dawn in the division when he poleaxed Joshua on an iconic night at Wembley Stadium last night but Wardley already has him in his sights.
He says: “I just have to finish the job on October 12 and then, honestly, I think I’m the next in line. I’m the next one up. Daniel is there, he has the belt and congratulations to him but I think I’m hot on his heels.
“There are certain milestones you have to reach before you align yourself with those in the upper echelons of the division. Getting through a 12-rounder, going to war, competing against a high-level competitor, taking shots, landing shots, I ticked all that off now and proved I can do them.”
Another interesting vignette in Wardley’s route towards Dubois is that he, like Joshua, is trained by Ben Davison. The Harlow-based coach came under fire for the two-time heavyweight champion’s performance at the national stadium, which was punctuated by four knockdowns, the last of which he was unable to rise from.
For Wardley, Saturday night is not only the chance of victory for him but also a shot at redemption for the gym as a whole.
“We carried wins and losses on our shoulders for everyone,” the Ipswich man adds. “It hurts for all of us all the same. You’re side-by-side with someone for 12 weeks, you watch them peak and you get a feel for them. It’s hard and sad to see when they don’t get the win.
“So to be next up, especially how much it pissed me off with all the stick that Ben got, it’s an extra battery in my back to not only win for myself but for Ben as well. I want to prove a point.
“They’re not mopers. There’s a lot to be done with a lot of fighters in a very busy gym but it’s not their attitude anyway. We have got straight back to work and it’s up to me to come out firing on Saturday night.”
And maybe, in just over two weeks’ time when he sits back and watches the tape, he will be this time raising a glass to victory.
