Fabio Wardley takes on Daniel Dubois this weekend in a heavyweight title fight, and in the lead up to the fight Wardley talks a bit about whether or not he believes he’ll get to fight Oleksandr Usyk before he retires, with Usyk recently saying he’d consider taking on the winner from this weekend. Wardley also gives his reaction to the thought of David Benavidez ever going up heavyweight, with his father recently saying Usyk could be one of the only men who can challenge him.
Wardley on Benavidez’s prospects at heavyweight
“It might be a step too
far. There’s a difference. There’s a large difference to jump from where he was before to cruiserweight, and then go from cruiserweight to heavyweight there’s an even bigger gap as well. So, yeah, that doesn’t seem like anything in the realm of possibility at the moment.”
On if he believes Usyk when he says he’ll consider facing the winner of Dubois and himself
“I’m less convinced than I used to be. Who knows. Maybe. But I’ve been in a similar situation where he came out previously and said he would fight the winner of me versus Parker and then it was me and then he didn’t fight me. So, it’s not something I’m going to hold my breath on. We’ll plan for all eventualities. If he wants to fight, he don’t need to call, he can send a carrier pigeon if you want. I’m sure I’ll get it and I’ll get the message and we can get it on, but, yeah, who knows what the future holds of Oleksandr Usyk.”
On why he thinks Usyk hasn’t fought him already
“I don’t know if it’s anything to do with me in particular. I think it’s at the point he’s at in his career, like there’s an obvious reason why he’s fighting a kickboxer or has picked that fight over a fight with me. And I’m not even going to say I necessarily disagree with it, I understand why…I’m pretty confident he’s going to come through [in that next fight] but that might reveal a lot about Oleksandr that we didn’t did see or didn’t know, or maybe he knows himself that he’s not the same guy he used to be a couple of years ago.”
