\n<\/p>\n
Wardley’s ascent to world champion has been remarkable. He only took up boxing at 20, emerging from the unlicensed white-collar circuit, and has stopped 19 opponents in his 20 professional wins.<\/p>\n
Known for his knockout power, he was behind on the scorecards against Justis Huni in June before producing a one-punch finish in the 10th round. He also appeared to be trailing Parker before stopping the New Zealander in the 11th.<\/p>\n
Wardley says he wants to cement his champion status by defending the title in the ring. However, discussions over an opponent for his first defence are yet to begin.<\/p>\n
“There’s a long list of [fighters] that could be opponents out there,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Some great domestic fights, some great international fights as well. We could do it in the UK, we could do it abroad, who knows?”<\/p>\n
Wardley aims to make a couple of defences before pursuing unification bouts late next year, whether against Usyk – if he still holds the belts – or another champion.<\/p>\n
One fighter Wardley would “not shy away” from is two-time world champion Anthony Joshua, who faces YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in December.<\/p>\n
Both Wardley and Joshua train under Ben Davison, although unconfirmed reports suggest Joshua may no longer be working with the Essex-based coach. <\/p>\n
“I’d never say no to anyone. AJ is one of the reasons that I got into boxing,” Wardley said.<\/p>\n
“He kind of changed the face of UK boxing from when he got into the sport and really brought it back to life in a sense. <\/p>\n
“It would be an honour to share the ring with him.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Wardley’s ascent to world champion has been remarkable. He only took up boxing at 20, emerging from the unlicensed white-collar circuit, and has stopped 19 opponents in his 20 professional wins. Known for his knockout power, he was behind on the scorecards against Justis Huni in June before producing a one-punch finish in the 10th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boxing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}