DAVID HAYE says Fabio Wardley has the power and unpredictability of Deontay Wilder – but warned he must fix his defence before it is too late.
Wardley – who faces Joseph Parker on Saturday live on DAZN PPV – has made a habit of losing rounds before finding the knockout shot.
It is the same formula that took Wilder, 39, to the WBC title and ten exciting defences over five years.
Wardley – who only began boxing at 20 and turned professional after just four white collar fights – has the same tendencies but also ships too much punishment.
So while his raw power and unorthodox style of attack makes him our answer to Wilder – it is his defence that Haye is concerned about.
The HighBet ambassador told SunSport: “It’s the closest thing we have to that sort of ungainly style, he doesn’t throw his punches in a traditional way, which actually is a skill of his.
“It’s hard to read someone who isn’t sort of boxing from the traditional playbook and when he does finally land a shot, it’s coming from an angle that you weren’t expecting, and next thing you know you’re on your bum looking up at him.
“I think he’s deceptively skilful in his own way. The only missing element is he gets tagged too much, he gets hit too much.
“But when someone can take it, it doesn’t seem to bother him, but against Joseph Parker you’re gonna have to have some consideration for what Parker’s doing because you don’t want to be eating his left hook.
“His left hook is solid, he’s got a beautiful overhand right. Just ask Martin Bakole how he felt after that big old bolo shot, clipped him on the temple, and that was that.”
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Wardley was down on all the scorecards in his June homecoming bout against Justis Huni at Ipswich’s Portman Road.
But in round ten, he found a home-run right hand to get him out of jail, something Haye says will only last so long.
He said: “Very few fighters have had no sort of consideration for what’s coming at them and got to the highest level.
“Joe Joyce for instance is a prime example. Granite chin, I remember before the Parker fight, he was talking about how he’s willing to take whatever he’s got and he did, he just took his biggest shots on the button and was able to absorb it.
“But sooner or later, you could only keep doing it for so long, then he fights Zhang and that’s it.
“Once that tree has been chopped down once you can never put it up as strong as it was in the beginning.
“So he’s been sadly chopped down and Wardley doesn’t want that. He doesn’t want to get broke down.
“His resilience is great but he doesn’t want to keep pushing it and testing it.
“So he needs to look forward beyond this fight, win or lose, punch evasion is pretty important in this game. It can extend your career ten years.”
Wardley, 30, comes into the bout as the WBA’s interim champion and primed for a shot at Oleksandr Usyk’s belt.
Parker, 33, holds the same rank in the WBO making it a winner-take-all affair and one Haye expects the travelling New Zealander to come through.
He predicted: “I think Parker on points or Parker by stoppage after nine rounds. I think anything over nine rounds, Parker gets the stoppage.
“If he can’t get a stoppage because Wardley is that tough and that resilient, he’ll win the fight on points.”
