How I see Joseph Parker vs Fabio Wardley playing out

It seems fair to say that Saturday's clash with Fabio Wardley at London's O2 Arena is high risk, low reward for Joseph Parker.

A run of six straight victories have seen Parker (36-3) become the mandatory challenger for Oleksandr Usyk's WBO title, but while the unified champion enjoys an extended break, the New Zealander puts it all on the line in a fight he has very little to benefit from - other than financial gain.

He will, of course, be supremely confident of overcoming the challenge faced by Wardley (19-0-1), and why wouldn't he be? Parker is in the form of his life and his impressive last three outings have put him at the front of the queue for a title shot.

In a thirteen-month period up to February this year, the 33-year-old scored a unanimous decision victory over former champion Deontay Wilder, outpointed Chinese wrecking ball Zhilei Zhang and stopped the avoided Martin Bakole in two rounds.

There is little doubt that the former WBO champion deserves another shot at his old belt, but first he must overcome Wardley, whose rapid journey from white-collar boxer to potential title contender has been nothing short of remarkable.

The man from Ipswich has stopped 18 of his 19 victims to date, having followed his draw with Frazer Clarke by brutally stopping that rival inside a round next time out, and he carries serious power.

There was no better example of that than in his last fight, when Wardley was a long way behind on the scorecards against Justis Huni before turning the tide with a huge right hand in the tenth round that left the Australian in no fit state to continue. Parker will have taken plenty of encouragement from watching the first nine and half rounds of that contest, but it also highlighted that Wardley is always in with a chance if he's still on his feet.

Added to that, Parker has never been too hard to hit and has been dropped on several occasions, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him on the canvas at some point this weekend.

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However, he is noted for his powers of recovery and only a Joe Joyce at the peak of his powers in 2022 has been able to stop Parker so far - even then it was in the eleventh round and more out of exhaustion following a bruising back-and-forth battle.

Indeed, Parker has only lost to top heavyweights in their best form, with his other two defeats coming to Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte by decision in 2018.

So, it would be some statement from Wardley if he can stop the durable Antipodean and that appears to be his most likely route to victory, given his inferior boxing skills and experience.

Parker's upturn in form since teaming up with in-form coach Andy Lee and nutritionist George Lockhart has been huge, and he now looks better than ever.

Parker a step ahead

With that in mind, I don't see Wardley making this step up in class a successful one. His power must be respected and I expect Parker to be fully aware of that, so the latter may look to box more in the opening exchanges.

It may not be too long before these offence-minded heavyweights are trading heavy leather, but Parker is the much more rounded of the two and he has more strings to his bow than Wardley.

Parker may have to survive a scare or two along the way, but I believe his superior all-round skillset can prove much and I fancy him to wear Wardley down at some point after the halfway mark, possibly around round nine.

Watch Parker vs. Wardley live only on DAZN

Joseph Parker and Fabio Wardley fight this Saturday, October 25, to become the WBO mandatory challenger to Oleksandr Usyk. Watch the fight and undercard live and exclusive on DAZN PPV.

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