Sometimes it happens, just like that. You find yourself sick of all the failed drug tests, and all the cancelled fights, and all the disregard for weight classes, and then, at the point at which there appears no going back, you see something that restores your faith in a sport apt to test you.
It usually comes in the form of a fight, a good one, but occasionally it is just a punch. Last night in Ipswich, for example, the right hand of Fabio Wardley did more than simply deliver him victory from the jaws of defeat in round 10. It also acted as the perfect metaphor for a fan’s fickle relationship with boxing, which, on a weekend featuring lots of fights and even more disappointment, was most welcome.
We should be grateful, too, to Justis Huni, the heavyweight from Australia, for his part in yesterday’s morale booster at Portman Road. After all, Wardley’s decisive shot in round 10 would mean nothing were it not for Huni’s performance and the superiority he showed leading up to it. For nine rounds, in fact, Huni had been near faultless against Wardley, winning most of the rounds and reminding us once again that the best antidote to unorthodoxy are solid fundamentals and sound technique. Round after round, Huni used this antidote to frustrate Wardley and remove the sting from his punches and by the seventh round he seemed to be busting the Englishman up. Some were even of the opinion that Wardley should be pulled out of the fight, or that his corner should at the very least be drafting an exit plan.
Huni, for nine rounds, was that good. His defence offered no holes, his jab reached the target before Wardley’s, and he also threw combinations well, each of them thrown tightly and with speed. He picked his moments to attack Wardley when coming forward and he always seemed to get it right. To emphasise this, at the fight’s conclusion he had landed 114 punches to Wardley’s 49, which, on reflection, will likely depress Huni as much as encourage him.
All in all, though, despite how it ended, it was one of the better heavyweight performances we have witnessed this year and Huni, even in defeat, has enhanced his reputation. In terms of the basics, he was clearly a level above Wardley on the night and he was quicker, too, often beating him to the punch and getting both in and out before Wardley could return fire. This, for Huni, was the key to success. It was also what frustrated Wardley the longer the fight progressed and what had a stoppage win for Huni seem possible once the fight entered its second half. By that point there was some swelling around Wardley’s eyes and the right hands he once took without blinking were now starting to linger a bit, make a dent, and leave his next step a more uncertain one.
But that was only Wardley’s legs, or his body. His mind, that’s a different story. His mind was never uncertain, at least not to the same degree, and he presumably never stopped believing that the fight could turn back in his favour. In fact, there’s every chance that Wardley expected Huni to have periods of success and that his ability to maintain the belief that all he needed was one punch was a result of this. If, in other words, he knows what he is by now – and he should – that makes it a lot easier for a fighter like Wardley to relax, not panic, and continue looking for that one moment he believes is all that is required.
In that respect, Wardley is continuing the tradition of Deontay Wilder, whose capacity to do the same led him to a WBC heavyweight title but has naturally dwindled as he has approached the age of 40. Now, as proven in recent fights, not only has Wilder given up believing that he can turn losing positions into winning ones, but, worse, his opponents have stopped fearing his ability to do so. Because of this, we now see a very different look on Wilder’s face both during rounds and between rounds. Because of this, we see his punches lack the conviction and, crucially, impact of the ones he used to throw without thinking in the good old days.
With Wardley, it’s somewhat different. He, unlike Wilder, has yet to suffer defeat as a pro and has still to experience the feeling of hitting someone and it having no effect on them. He has, of course, had a distance fight – a 12-round draw against Frazer Clarke – but even in that fight Wardley’s power shifted the momentum of the bout and, in round five, put Clarke down. We then all saw what Wardley’s power did to Clarke in the rematch just seven months later.
If anything, those two fights with Clarke offered us the full picture when it comes to what Wardley can and cannot do in the ring. We saw him win rounds, lose rounds, hurt, and get hurt. We also saw that many of his technical flaws can be eradicated with one swing of a right hand; a shot he throws as well as any heavyweight in the post-Wilder era. In the end, it’s the damage done that sticks, more so than everything that came before it: the rounds lost, the punches taken, any fleeting uncertainty.
This Wardley will have known when entering last night’s fight against Huni in Ipswich, his hometown, and only Huni’s prolonged success in the fight had the potential to shake him from the belief. Even then, Wardley would have known, as he entered round 10, that he still had three rounds in which to land the one punch he always felt would suffice. That, for a puncher like Wardley, is still a lot of time. A puncher, in fact, hears only two bells on fight night: the first and last. All other bells, including the ones to signify the start and end of rounds, wash over them and serve only to keep them in check – start punching, stop punching. Until more than three people are in the ring, there is, for a puncher, always a chance of victory.
“Look, I don’t profess to be any kind of [Oleksandr] Usyk,” said Wardley, 19-0-1 (18), after the fight. “Justis Huni is someone with all the skills. But one thing I do know how to do is win fights; dig deep, find a bit of heart, bite down on the gum shield, and find a way to win. That’s what I had to do tonight.”
That combination of unteachable things led to the one right hand Wardley needed and the last right hand of the fight. It was to be a short right hand, thrown just as Huni was chucking his own, and it couldn’t have landed any sweeter for Wardley. It was clean, it was fight-changing, and the only thing still to be determined was whether Huni, hurt by it, would be able to beat the count – a very quick one, by the way – or not. As it turned out, the punch was too damaging and the count too quick.
“That’s my curse,” said Huni, now 12-1 (7) but still able to smile. “I even said before this fight that it only takes one split second to switch off, and it happened tonight. But credit to Fabio and his team. He’s just an awesome fighter, man. He never gave up and he got the win tonight. He deserves it, man.”
The knockout alone was enough to have us all forgive and fall back in love with the sport. However, the demonstration of respect between Wardley and Huni at the end was perhaps even better, for it managed to override a lot of the disrespect shown towards boxing by others in recent days, weeks, and months.