Fabio Wardley scores stunning one-shot comeback KO of Justis Huni to set up stunning world title shot
FABIO WARDLEY’S baby daughter will arrive just in time to celebrate her daddy’s sensational comeback christening.
Ipswich’s 30-year-old heavyweight boxed his way up from the white-collar obscurity to a headline slot at Portman Road.
But he put on a performance worthy of the Tractor Boys’ Prem relegation and was dominated by 26-year-old Australian Justis Huni until a sensational 10th round KO.
The battered and bruised winner said: “I am so thankful to everyone here, you got me through that, I could not have done it without you.
“I have never claimed to be Usyk, with all the skills, but I know how to bite down on the gumshield and find a way to win.
“I should have performed better but I pulled something special out of the bag.
“He pulled out so many tricks and I didn’t expect him to bank so many rounds But I screwed my head back on and got the job done.”
The 26-year-old Aussie caught the hometown hero’s attention with a two-jab combination in the opener, stabbing to the body and then the head.
But Wardley threatened him back with whipped right hands in spiteful Mexican Fly-branded blue gloves.
The Tractor Boys could not intimidate Huni with even their loudest songs and the underdog grew in confidence in the second and scored with the cleaner and more technical shots, while Wardley headhunted bluntly.
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Wardley was slapped by three meaty left hooks in the third that had the partisan crowd panicked.
But then he landed a peach of a punch that stunned Huni and had him staggering backwards and covering up.
Huni ran away with the fourth, cracking Wardley with a pinpoint one-two and clipping him with a left hook.
Prior to his one-round demolition of Frazer Clarke, Wardley had a bad reputation for slow starts and was returning to bad habits.
Wardley inexplicably dropped his hands for the middle rounds and let his face get flattened by every shot Huni threw.
It was bafflingly bad boxing from a fighter who had shown freakish improvements with every previous bout. Huni landed every right hand he aimed and made a bloody mess of the Englishman.
Wardley remained a punchbag for the next few, either getting terrible advice from his corner or ignoring anything worthwhile.
Huni only took the challenge on five weeks notice and was doing Down Under proud with clever technical boxing and nerves of steel.
But, after losing almost every round in a stinker of a performance, Wardley uncorked a life-changing shot hat dropped Huni and he failed to rise from.
Wardley is now the WBA “interim” champion with Oleksandr Usyk defending his full version against Daniel Dubois on July 19 at Wembley.
And Wardley’s Hall of Fame promoter Frank Warren insisted the comeback king will be first in line for the winner.