Joseph Parker vs Fabio Wardley Preview Oct. 25th, 2025
Former WBO Heavyweight Champion Joseph Parker of New Zealand takes on England’s unbeaten Fabio Wardley this Saturday, October 25th. The 12-rounder from London, England for Parker’s WBO Interim Title, can be seen live on DAZN pay per view in most nations. Parker last fought in February when he stopped Martin Bakole in the second round. In his previous fight in March, 2024, Parker got up from the canvas in rounds three and eight to beat Zhilei Zhang via a 12-round majority decision for the WBO Interim Heavyweight Crown. Wardley last saw action in June when he halted Justis Huni in a controversial stoppage in the 10th round while trailing big time on all three scorecards.
Parker vs Wardley Betting Odds
Here are the betting odds from online sportsbook BetOnline.ag (full review here).
- Fabio Wardley +284
- Joseph Parker -400
My Pick
The 33-year-old Parker, who is now based in England, enters the bout with a mark of 36-3 with 24 Ko’s. He won the vacant regular WBO Title in December, 2016 by beating Andy Ruiz Jr. by majority decision but lost it via unanimous decision to Anthony Joshua in March, 2018 in a unification bout. His second defeat was a controversial 12-round unanimous decision to Dillian Whyte in August, 2018 for the vacant WBO International and the WBC Silver Heavyweight Titles and his third and last loss was to Joe Joyce in September, 2022 when he was stopped in the 11th round of a slugfest for the vacant interim WBO Crown.
Parker has pretty good power in his punches as 67 per cent of his wins have come by stoppage but has gone the distance in 11 of his last 18 fights with all three of his losses coming in his last 15 outings. Earlier in his career, Parker’s power was his strong point but he’s had to depend on his underrated boxing skills and hand speed more often in the past few years. He went the distance five times in a row from 2016 to 2018 against Whyte, Joshua, Hughie Fury, Razvan Cojanu and Ruiz before stopping Alexander Flores, Alex Leapai and Shawndell Winters all in a row between December, 2018 and February, 2020.
Since then, he’s beaten Junior Fa and Dereck Chisora (twice) by decisions before falling to Joyce and rebounding with a points win over Jack Massey; a first-round stoppage of Faiga Opelu; a third-round win over Simon Kean; a unanimous decision over Deontay Wilder and his triumphs over Zhang and Bakole. Parker needs to be able to fight the full three minutes of every round if he’s forced to. He landed several bombs against Joyce but was worn down and ran out of gas when he was stopped with just five minutes to go in the fight. Parker won the WBO Oriental Heavyweight Championship by stopping Brian Minto in seven rounds in 2014 and has won several other regional heavyweight titles.
These include the WBO Oriental, OPBF, WBC International and WBO Inter-Continental Crowns. Parker also has wins over Alexander Dimitrenko, Carlos Takam, Marcelo Luiz Nascimento, Kali Meehan, Bowie Tupou, Jason Pettaway, Frans Botha and Sherman Williams. Parker turned pro in 2005 after an excellent amateur career and has 252 rounds under his belt since. He also has decent size for a modern-day heavyweight at 6-feet-4-inches with a 76-inch reach.
Parker’s not the most athletic and mobile boxer in the ring though and generally has trouble against fleet-footed and mobile opponents. He also leaves himself open for counter shots but doesn’t mind taking one or two punches to land one of his own. His chin has been pretty reliable so far after being tested quite often even though he was halted by Joyce and dropped by Zhang. Parker needs to instill a killer instinct as he staggered Joyce on several occasions and waited far too long to go after Dillian Whyte as he virtually had him out on his feet just as the bell rang and paid the price for not letting his hands go earlier.
The 30-year-old Wardley, who hails from Ipswich, climbs into the ring with a near-perfect mark of 19-0-1 with 18 Ko’s and has just 72 rounds of experience under his belt since turning pro in 2017. Power is obviously the name of his game as 94.7 per cent of his wins have come by stoppage. The lone blemish in his record is a 12-round draw with Frazer Clarke in March, 2024 for Wardley’s British, Commonwealth and European Heavyweight Belts.
Clarke was dropped in the fifth round and deducted a point for low blows in the seventh. The pair fought a rematch seven months later with Wardley stopping him in just 148 seconds. The only man other than Clarke to go the distance with him was Jakub Wojkicback in April, 2017 in Wardley’s pro debut. The Englishman stands 6-feet-5-inches tall with a 78-inch reach for a one-inch edge in height and two-inch edge in reach on Parker and is managed by fellow heavyweight Dillian Whyte.
Wardley won the vacant British Heavyweight Title in August 2020 by stopping Simon Vallily in the third round and has also defended it against Nick Webb, Nathan Gorman and David Adeleye. He also has wins over Eric Molina, Michael Polite Coffie, Daniel Martz, Richard Lartey, Dennis Lewandowski and Chris Healey. He hasn’t really faced any top world-class contenders as of yet and is arguably taking a step up in class against Parker this weekend.
Prediction…
Parker’s power hasn’t really been that evident lately even though he caught an ill-prepared Martin Bakole early. He more or less used his boxing skills to frustrate Deontay Wilder, Zhilei Zhang and Dereck Chisora. He won’t want to get into a slugfest with Wardley but needs to land something significant to stop him from charging forward. Parker certainly has the better boxing skills but this bout will likely be decided by power, chins and the will to win. As long as Parker doesn’t get caught by a shot like Justis Huni did he should be able to outbox Wardley over 12 rounds.
Parker’s experience and boxing skills should do the trick.
Play: Parker -400 @ BetOnline.ag
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Fabio Wardley betting • Joseph Parker betting