Fabio Wardley needed one punch and every ounce of hometown will to flip a nightmare into a fairy-tale. Outboxed and battered by Australia’s Justis Huni for nine torrid rounds on Saturday, the Ipswich heavyweight uncorked a desperate right in the 10th that left Huni flat on his back and handed Wardley the WBA interim title before 20,000 roaring supporters at Portman Road.
Until that moment the script was bleak: Huni, a decorated amateur with twice Wardley’s ring experience, had picked the local hero apart, prompting murmurs that trainer Rob Hodgins might mercifully intervene. Instead Wardley walked out bruised, gambled on a “hit-and-hope” swing, and detonated South-Coast pandemonium. “Did everyone have a good time? Were you entertained?” he laughed at the post-fight presser, still wiping blood from a swelling eye.
In victory the 30-year-old was quick to admit he remains a work in progress. “I’m still very much learning on the job, which is a funny thing to say 20 fights in,” Wardley said, noting Huni’s deeper amateur résumé and echoing lessons taken from his punishing 2024 series with Frazer Clarke. That first bout, which was a savage draw, left Wardley so marked up he vowed to avoid similar wars. Seven months later, he flattened Clarke in a single round, but Saturday proved old habits die hard.
“I can’t keep taking years off my life like this,” he sighed, half-joking that his mother and pregnant partner would deliver a harsher scolding than any trainer. Yet the lure of big nights is irresistible. “The occasion, the buzz, the build - there’s nothing better. It’s intoxicating.”
Now armed with an interim belt and a cult-hero reputation for late drama, Wardley eyes bigger game in a heavyweight landscape. He insists the next chapter will feature tighter defence and fewer detours to the brink - but after Portman Road’s last-gasp lightning, no one is betting on a quiet night when Fabio Wardley steps through the ropes.
Get to know more about Fabio's biography and his fighting style.
Image Credit: DAZN