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Even Fabio Wardley had given up trying to make sense of the absurdity of his boxing career. It had gone midnight when he attempted to explain how, less than an hour earlier, he had found a way to defeat Joseph Parker. And how a former recruitment consultant with no amateur experience could soon be crowned the best heavyweight on the planet. Wardley, by now draped in an Ipswich scarf and hiding his battle scars behind a pair of shades, had been here before. Four months ago he looked to have met his match when he lost almost every minute of nine completed rounds against Justis Huni. But a right hand from nowhere flattened his rival and kept alive his hopes of a fairytale ending to his remarkable career. Few expected him to repeat the trick against Parker. The Kiwi had long been considered the second-best active heavyweight in the world behind Usyk and was already guaranteed a shot at the Ukrainian. But he gambled that status against Wardley - a wager which backfired in devastating fashion. Parker was ahead on two of the three judges' scorecards heading into the championship rounds with Wardley requiring at least a knockdown to win. The home favourite knew he could hurt Parker after doing so in the second and 10th rounds. And when he landed a right hand in the 11th, he seized his chance, throwing more than 30 punches with almost all of them unanswered. There was controversy when referee Howard Foster stepped in to wave off the fight but, as Parker later admitted, he had invited the official to do so by not firing back. In the end it was Wardley who found himself flat on his back on the canvas in a mixture of elation and exhaustion. And his achievement had yet to sink in when he endeavoured, unsuccessfully, to sum it up. "This is...," he stuttered not once but twice. "This is... I think I'm past the point of knowing, I just don't know anymore! I am just riding the wave. It has been a wild ride, a wild journey and it is nowhere near finished yet. I still have a lot more I want to do, a lot more to achieve in the sport and there is way more to come." If Wardley was struggling to put his finger on the method to the madness, he was also tongue-tied about his next assignment. Seven years ago, as a fledgling professional, he received a Facebook message in broken English asking him to travel to Ukraine to spar with Usyk. He spent eight weeks in Eastern Europe learning from the then cruiserweight world champion. Now he could be the one to relieve the 38-year-old of his four heavyweight belts. "I don't know how to put that into words," said Wardley, not for the first time. "That has been the goal now for a number of years, that has been the one I wanted and the objective, and we are there. “It is a wild one to say, but he is one of the generational talents, one of the best to ever do it and the one with all the marbles. There is nothing more I could ask for, there is nothing more I could want in the sport."
