Fabio Wardley says he is willing to resume hostilities with British heavyweight rival Frazer Clarke, despite leaving “a piece of my soul” in their first fight.
Wardley and Clarke met over the course of 12 brutal heavyweight rounds in March, fighting virtually to a stand still in a thrilling draw for the former’s British and Commonwealth championships at The O2.
Ipswich’s Wardley is not afraid to revisit that contest and negotiations to make a rematch are ongoing.
“If it can be made, if it’s easily made, if there’s no fussing, no messing around, then cool get it done. Otherwise I’m still undefeated, I’ve still got all my belts, I’m still in charge. Ultimately, I’m still in the driving seat I can do whatever I want so if things don’t go that way there are other options for us,” Wardley told Sky Sports.
Wardley saw Clarke ringside at the Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk undisputed championship clash last month.
“He said: ‘How are you doing, are you recovering well?’ I said I’m good, I’m good to go, I’m in the gym. He said the same,” Wardley recalled.
“I said, ‘look we’ll get it back on but let the teams deal with it’. And we both agreed. Let the boys deal with it. We’ll do our bit. We’ll get in the gym and we’ll let them deal with it.
“Our teams are having discussions about doing it again and bits and bobs and things like that. We’re boxers at the end of the day. We’re not promoters, we’re not agents, we leave the work to them, solicitors, lawyers and stuff, we’re don’t bother with that stuff, we leave it to them.”
There is respect between the two. “Me and Frazer are professionals. We know what we had to do to sell the fight. We sold the fight and then the fight lived up to every expectation,” Wardley said.
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Ipswich-born boxer Fabio Wardley says it’s been a special few days for everyone in the town following Ipswich Town’s promotion to the Premier League
Their first fight was indeed extraordinarily gruelling. “I left a piece of my soul in The O2 that night,” Wardley reflected. “I really do [think that].
“I left at least a pint of blood in there or something as well because it was a messy affair. I left a bit of me in there that night. So The O2, that occasion will forever hold a massive part of me.”
But he is willing to confront that again. As hard as it was, it was quite possibly the greatest British heavyweight fight of all-time.
“It’s almost poetic in a sense of like it’ll be historical for me [to fight Clarke again]. It’ll be something for me to look back on and be proud of and look at and rewatch and go you know what, I did a hell of thing that night,” Wardley said.
“That tag and that name that people give it makes every ounce of blood I shed worth it. Those fights, those moments, those occasions are what I live for.
“To be part of them, to be present, have my name in the mix with them, that’s what I want.”