{"id":39722,"date":"2025-10-25T23:23:48","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T23:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=39722"},"modified":"2025-10-25T23:23:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T23:23:48","slug":"c8jrgwlrxnzoat_mediumrssat_campaignrss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2025\/10\/25\/c8jrgwlrxnzoat_mediumrssat_campaignrss\/","title":{"rendered":"Parker vs Wardley: Fabio Wardley stops Joseph Parker in huge heavyweight upset"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Fabio Wardley pulled off a huge upset to wreck Joseph Parker&#8217;s dreams of becoming a two-time world heavyweight champion on Saturday and put himself in position for a shot at undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The British fighter is now the number one challenger for the Ukrainian after he claimed a stunning comeback victory by stopping the veteran New Zealander in the 11th round of an entertaining and bruising battle at London&#8217;s O2 Arena.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Wardley, 30, claimed the WBO interim title when he forced referee Howard Foster to stop the bout as he swarmed around former world champion Parker.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Ipswich native brought the crowd to their feet and collapsed to the floor in celebration as his corner team piled into the ring to celebrate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They were superb scenes as the former white-collar boxer continued his remarkable rise in the professional ranks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The more experienced Parker, 33, had dominated for large parts of the fight and hurt Wardley numerous times with right hands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Yet it was a right uppercut from Wardley in the 10th round which swung the bout firmly back in favour of the underdog.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The former WBO champion was fortunate that there were only 10 seconds remaining in the round, and he managed to survive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, Wardley would get his win in the next round as again he hurt Parker with a huge right hand to leave him reeling on the ropes and the Englishman did not let him off the hook.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Wardley wildly threw shots and Parker, almost defenceless, was unable to respond which forced the referee to step in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">This was Wardley&#8217;s 20th career win and his most important. Usyk now potentially awaits early next year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Parker risked his position as the number one contender for Usyk&#8217;s crown by taking this fight, falling to his fourth career defeat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It was a gamble that did not pay off, and he will regret not taking his chances when he had hurt Wardley earlier in the bout.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Wardley looked like he was running out of steam but, just like in his last fight against Justis Huni, he had the equaliser with his ferocious right hand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Now he will wait to see when Usyk recovers from a back injury before negotiations begin for an undisputed heavyweight clash next year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Parker #Wardley #Fabio #Wardley #stops #Joseph #Parker #huge #heavyweight #upset<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fabio Wardley pulled off a huge upset to wreck Joseph Parker&#8217;s dreams of becoming a two-time world heavyweight champion on&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39722"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39723,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39722\/revisions\/39723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}