The Blueprint For A Wardley Victory After Parker’s Loss To Joe Joyce

Sergio Mora is siding with WBA interim heavyweight champion Fabio Wardley in his headline battle against WBO interim champion Joseph Parker in their fight next month on October 25, 2025, at the O2 Arena in London.

Wardley’s Home Advantage

The DAZN commentator Mora says Wardley (19-0-1, 18 KOs) may even “stop” Parker (36-3, 25 KOs) in their 12-round fight. Mora points out that Parker was knocked out by Joe Joyce just three years ago. He believes that Wardley is a better fighter now than ‘The Juggernaut’ Joyce was when he defeated Parker.

Parker vs. Wardley will meet in the main event on October 25 on DAZN PPV.  It’s a fight that will give the British fighter Fabio a home-country advantage. Whether that helps him or not remains to be seen, but it has to be viewed as a positive.

Undercard for Parker-Wardley on October 25

Denzel Bentley vs. Endry Saavedra
Lewis Edmondson vs. Ezra Taylor
Royston Barney-Smith vs. Danny Quartermaine

“I think Wardley is going to have the advantage, and I think he may even stop Parker,” said commentator and former junior middleweight champion Sergio Mora to DAZN Boxing, picking Fabio Wardley to defeat Joseph Parker on October 25.

The Joyce Blueprint

Wardley could have an advantage if he attacks Parker relentlessly, as Joe Joyce did in his 11th-round knockout victory over him on September 24, 2022. Two of Parker’s career defeats have come against pressure fighters, Joyce and Dillian Whyte.

The All-Out Assault Plan

Wardley has a shot at conquering Parker if he goes after him nonstop, cutting off the ring, and firing everything with power. Parker will retreat, and his own shots lose zip when he’s forced to move. As we witnessed in his loss to Joyce, he fades when dealing with forced aggression for three minutes of every round. Parker, 33, is a big guy, and he could wilt if Wardley attacks relentlessly in all-out assaults.

“You’re crazy,” said DAZN commentator Chris Mannix in response to Mora’s prediction of a Fabio victory.

“Joe Joyce stopped Parker,” said Mora.

“How many years ago was that? How many fights ago?” said Mannix.

“It doesn’t matter,” said Mora. “And I think Wardley is a better fighter than Joe Joyce.”

“I think Fabio Wardley is fine. He’s a good fighter. He’s 30 years old. He had that great win over Frazer Clarke. That was a career-defining performance. But look at his last fight, Sergio. He was getting outboxed by Justis Huni before he knocked Justis Huni out,” said Mannix.

Huni looked impressive, outboxing Wardley and building up a wide lead going into the tenth round of their fight on June 7, 2025. In the tenth, a badly beaten-looking Wardely threw a desperate homerun right hand, dropping Huni. The referee then counted him out.

At the time of the stoppage, Huni was ahead by the scores 88-83, 89-82, and 899-82 on all three judges’ scorecards. There’s no shame in Wardley struggling with the Australian Huni, as he was a fighter who showed Olympic potential in 2021. He would have fought in that year’s Olympics if not for a hand injury.

Parker’s Post-Lee Comeback

“So, you’re going to sit and tell me that Joseph Parker isn’t a better boxer than Justis Huni? That Joe Parker doesn’t have more power than Justis Huni?” said Mannix. “Joseph Parker has been a different fighter since Andy Lee has been in his corner. Joseph Parker has been a completely different guy in his recent fights.”

For the record, Parker hired Andy Lee as his trainer in March 2021, following his split with coach Kevin Parker. The move for Parker to join up with Lee came after his grueling 12-round unanimous decision win over Junior Fa on February 21, 2021. That was a difficult fight for Parker, as he took a lot of punishment from Fa.

Since adding Lee as his trainer, Parker has won eight of his last nine fights since March 2021. His lone defeat came against 2016 Olympic Silver medalist Joe Joyce in an 11th-round knockout. That was a case of Joyce walking through everything Parker threw to unload enough of his slow bombs to grind him down to score a knockout in round 11.

Parker’s Opponent History

Since that loss, Parker has gone 6-0, defeating the notable fighters Martin Bakole, Zhilei Zhang, and Deontay Wilder. Those are good fighters, but Parker didn’t catch them at their very best. Wilder was 38 and Zhang 40 when they fought Parker. They were far from their best form.

Bakole was brought in as a late replacement for Parker after his originally scheduled opponent, Daniel Dubois, dropped out of their February 22, 2025, fight due to illness. What could have contributed to Parker’s second-round knockout win over Bakole is that Martin was out of shape, weighing 310 pounds.