‘All or Nothing’ – Joseph Parker vs Fabio Wardley final press quotes
‘All or Nothing’ takes place at The O2 on Saturday night, live on DAZN, headlined by the giant heavyweight showdown between Joseph Parker and Fabio Wardley. The pair a fighting for the right to a straight shot at undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk.
The fighters and their teams convened at Studio 338 in London to exchange some final words ahead of the mighty collision and below are a selection of key quotes from this media event.
Frank Warren
“This is the most significant fight, at the moment, in the heavyweight division. It is the best one out there. These two guys have stepped up when neither of them needed to make this fight. Joe Parker, he is the interim champion and the WBO have already ordered that Oleksandr Usyk has to defend his belt against him, but he was injured.
“Joseph wants to fight anyway. And Fabio, again, he is in a fantastic position and he only had to wait him time. He said no, he wanted to fight and, not only that, he wanted to fight Joe Parker because it gives him a chance to jump the queue.
“You have got to take your hat off to them, they are fighting men. Proper, proper fighting men. We have got a superb fight here. Queensberry and DAZN are bringing another great heavyweight fight to the viewers.”
Joseph Parker
“For me this is all or nothing. I am not really thinking about losing this fight, I am going into this fight to win. And when I win I will be going onto the next fight. I respect my opponent and what he has done in his career and how he has prepared for this fight, but I am a different level, to be honest. And I am going to show it on Saturday night.
“I have got many miles on the clock and many more to bring. I am only getting into my prime now.
“Credit to Wardley for taking this fight, but it is the wrong time to take this fight because I am going to smash him. He picked this fight and I said yes to every fight, so we both want this fight.
“He believes in himself but I know I am going to win this fight. He is going to learn that it is okay to have a loss and he has got enough time to climb back.”
Fabio Wardley
“It is a massive night coming up on Saturday. Massive for the pair of us sitting at this table and massive for me at this stage of my career as well. It is obviously the biggest fight of my career and biggest fight of my life coming up. So far, so good for me, every time I do step up I rise to the occasion and rise to the challenge. Saturday is going to be no different.
“The separation between where Joe is and where people think I am has been a common theme for me throughout my career. It is nothing new that I am hearing. Every time I step up to a new level, it is always this is a step too far until I come through and win and then it is the next step is too far.
“I relish the challenge, I look forward to stepping up and proving people wrong, showing people that I am very much at the top level in this division.
“I don’t know if it is positive or negative really that everyone focuses on my power, knocking opponents out. My record speaks for itself and I guess in that case it draws away from my boxing skill and ability. I think anyone with an educated brain in boxing knows that it takes more than muscles and a bit of strength to knock someone out.
“It takes practice, timing, precision and you’ve got to work at those things. All this leads to boxing IQ. Just because my record is littered with highlight reel knockouts, I think people get distracted by that and it takes away from what got me to those punches.
“So it can work to my benefit. If you think I’m going to be running around that ring with my right hand cocked waiting ready to go, there is a lot more you and the team need to prepare for.
“He has been going around the block for a long time, with a lot of fights on his record. By no means is he an old man in the game, but he has been in the sport for a long time and had some heavy fights. Look, I’ve been in a few wars myself and I know they put miles on the clock and Joe has been in a lot more rounds and a lot more of those than me.
“There are two sides to that coin of experience. You can take all that experience into the fight, but you are also taking all the miles in there as well. You can’t erase those, you bring them with you. It just depends how you want to look at it.”