Tim Bradley believes Fabio Wardley could pull off an upset on Saturday night by knocking out WBO interim heavyweight champion Joseph Parker with one of his right-hand shots on October 25th at the O2 Arena in London.
The Equalizer Right Hand
Bradley calls Wardley (19-0-1, 18 KOs) the “midrange assassin” with the way he scores knockouts with his right hand with shots at the midrange. He feels Fabio is tough with the way he can walk through big shots and stay around long enough to connect with one of his own big punches to score a KO.
Tim notes that Parker (36-3, 24 KOs) fell apart in the later rounds against big, slow Joe Joyce, getting knocked out in the 11th round on September 24, 2022. That was a fight in which Parker had been doing well, but Joyce hung around, absorbing his punches, and wore him down with his heavy shots.
Wardley, 30, is a much sharper puncher than Joyce, with far superior hand speed, and can catch Parker with shots that he doesn’t see coming if he fights aggressively.
Parker, 33, has become a more defensive fighter since teaming up with trainer Andy Lee in 2021. He still fights aggressively enough to be vulnerable to the shots that Wardley will be throwing on Saturday night.
“Mid-Range Assassin” Unleashed
“Wardley got that power. He got that equalizer. The way he caught [Justis] Huni at midrange. This man, Wardley, is a midrange assassin,” said Tim Bradley on his site, giving his thoughts on Fabio Wardley’s fight against Joseph Parker on Saturday.
With this fight being on DAZN PPV, Parker needs to engage more than he showed in his fights with Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang. He did very little in either of those fights and spent a lot of time moving around the ring in circles.
Bradley’s KO Blueprint
“When you shoot a jab at midrange, he’s coming right over the top with that right hand. You can get a false sense of security looking at Wardley,” said Bradley. He’s so easy to hit, but he’s so tough. If he can take Parker’s shots and hit him at midrange, it’s lights out.”