By David Martinez / Boxing Historian / dmboxing.com

By no fault of my own, I actually missed the live telecast of the Fabio Wardley vs. Joseph Parker heavyweight bout from the 02 Arena in London. So, I had to settle for watching the replay knowing the result; I usually don’t do that, but I’m certainly glad that I did so on this one!

A better than 3 to 1 underdog, interim WBA champion Wardley (20-0-1 / 19 by KO) surprised many, including me, coming from behind on the scorecards to defeat the interim WBO heavyweight champion Parker (36-4 / 24 by KO) by eleventh round knockout.

The fight itself was action packed from start to finish. Wardley began slowly and Parker started strong with both fighters landing their own big shots. In round 2, Wardley threw more than a dozen unanswered punches with Parker losing his mouth piece to avoid a possible early knockout.

As the fight progressed, it was apparent that Parker was winning more rounds, but Wardley continued throwing right hand punches that kept the fight exciting and interesting.

At the start of round 10, it was clear that Parker came to fight, but Wardley countered with a flurry of punches of his own to pin Parker on the ropes, as the bell rang to save Parker from further punishment.

In between rounds and before round 11, Wardley’s head manager, Michael Ofo, told his fighter not to let Parker recover.

Midway into round 11, it was visible that Parker was dazed and unable to defend himself. Though I felt the stoppage was premature, referee Howard Foster made the decision to halt the fight at 1:54 of the round.

With the win, Wardley added the interim WBO heavyweight title to his WBA title. He is now a top contender for a future mega fight with WBA / WBC / IBF / WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (24-0 / 15 by KO).