Fabio Wardley may never be Ed Sheeran famous – but he is Ipswich’s boxing star

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    Fabio Wardley knows it will be impossible to eclipse Ed Sheeran’s stardom – but he’s sure he can hit the right notes to be Ipswich’s big boxing star.

    The rising British heavyweight ace joked he might not be able to replicate the pulling power of Suffolk’s star musician. But the huge Ipswich fan believes he’s on song to become a big name in boxing’s hit division.

    Wardley, 28, takes on American Michael Coffie tonight on the undercard of Anthony Joshua’s showdown with Jermaine Franklin at the O2 on Saturday night. But one day he hopes to sell out the home of his beloved football club at Portman Road for a big fight and finally make Ipswich famous for a boxing star as well as a singer.

    Read more: Anthony Joshua posts heaviest weigh-in of his career – 12lb more than Jermaine Franklin

    He said: “Away from the football club we are quite fortunate we have Ed Sheeran. We’ve got one megastar but a couple of sports stars along the way as well would be pretty good.

    “I’ve got to try to beat Ed! He does still have really strong ties with Ipswich, as well as the football club, he loves the club, he sponsors them.

    “He comes to games sometimes, he is around but I just haven’t bumped into him. I would love to fight at the stadium but I’m a victim of Ipswich’s previous success because they’ve got quite a big stadium. They’ve got 30,000!”

    While Sheeran went from sofa surfing and gigging at small venues before becoming a global music superstar, Wardley’s rise has been pretty impressive too. He only picked up boxing when he got injured playing football and couldn’t crack that sport.

    Wardley was a troublesome teen which meant he was part of a youth work programme but one of the staff there happened to be a boxing coach.

    “I just gave him a call and I asked him if I could get involved in boxing,” he said. "I just wanted to try it out and see if I found it fun. He was lik,e ‘of course’. It felt like I went one day and I never left.”

    With Ipswich’s boxing scene far from bubbling back then, he opted to have ‘White Collar’ bouts which are unlicensed contests. After a few, he got spotted and asked to turn professional. First he needed a licence with the British Boxing Board of Control.

    “My board interview was a very interesting one,” said Wardley. “I was extremely green. I didn’t know the whole setup, I just got told to apply for my licence.

    “I thought I would be meeting some guys around the back of the gym. I thought it would be extremely casual. I turned up in a tracksuit and everyone else was in suits, I was like ‘Oh no, I’ve messed up here! I look stupid’.

    “I go in there and they asked some questions. They’re asking around the room and people are like ‘I’m ABA champion this, I’m ABA champion that’. I’m the one guy sat there in a tracksuit and say, ‘Oh I’ve done white collar”. They shook their heads.”

    But Wardley passed his assessment and off he went. He soon got the attention of some experienced pros and was sparring with Derek Chisora and Dillian Whyte.

    Then came a call to spar with Oleksandr Usyk, who was a cruiserweight king at the time.

    “I went abroad for it, I didn’t know what you do and don’t do,” he said. I just turned up to Ukraine and a guy who barely spoke English just told me to jump in the back of his van and I was like, ‘Oh right, I guess I’m doing this’.

    “I got there and met Usyk and his team. They were great and really nice. I was asked back a second time and spent more weeks with him. It was a baptism of fire and I knew I needed to learn quick.”

    Wardley did learn quick and he spent his time watching and making notes of all the processes Usyk went through. Now 15 fights into his professional career, he’s British champion and eyeing up domestic rivalries with the likes of David Adeleye and Frazer Clarke before moving on to showdowns with Daniel Dubois and Joe Joyce. Maybe one of them will be the fight to fill Portman Road.

    “When we can finally get there and get an event like that it will be so good,” added Wardley. “The club have been onto me about it. The local council got in touch with Matchroom to put an event on. The whole town is behind me.”

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    • Anthony Joshua
    • Boxing
    • Ed Sheeran

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