WBO heavyweight world champion Fabio Wardley has said that he isn’t banking on getting a fight with Oleksandr Usyk, even if he does successfully defend his title against Daniel Dubois on May 9.
“It’s nice to be on the list,” Wardley told IFL TV. “It’s nice to be in the conversation. I’ve always assumed that I would have been. I still take it with a pinch of salt, because before the [Joseph] Parker fight I was having conversations, and before the Dubois fight I was having conversations with him. So, it’s like, yeah we will see. I’m not banking on it. I’m not going to go, ‘I’ve done the Dubois fight, it’s Usyk now’ because you never know how this game is going to play out.”
Wardley (20-0-1, 19 KOs) was responding to Usyk’s three-fight retirement plan that has snatched the headlines. The Ukrainian superstar had said that once he handles kickboxing legend Rico Verhoeven on May 23, he would like to face the winner of Wardley and Dubois and then move on to a trilogy with Tyson Fury before hanging his gloves up.
Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs) relinquished the WBO heavyweight title following an order from the governing body to defend the belt against the Ipswich knockout artist, which prompted the WBO to elevate Wardley to world champion.
Wardley has been in impressive form worthy of a champion. The 31-year-old devastated Frazer Clarke, dislodging his jaw during a first-round stoppage victory in 2024. He followed that up with knockout wins against Justis Huni last June and against Joseph Parker in October.
It appears Usyk is looking at the possibility of becoming a four-time undisputed champion. The 39-year-old southpaw conquered the cruiserweight division when securing all four belts against Russia’s Murat Gassiev in the final of the World Boxing Super Series in 2018. His first reign as an undisputed heavyweight champion came after defeating Tyson Fury in 2024, and he would then go on to reclaim the IBF title he vacated last year with a spectacular fifth-round stoppage against Dubois.
