Fabio Wardley isn’t impressed with the perfect record David Adeleye has built since he turned pro nearly four years ago.
The undefeated Wardley believes he represents a huge step up in class for the hard-hitting London native. Adeleye also questioned Wardley’s slightly longer list of conquests, but Ipswich’s Wardley rolled his eyes as Adeleye spoke about all of his supposed advantages entering their high-stakes, 12-round co-feature on the Tyson Fury-Francis Ngannou undercard Saturday night at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
“Listen, it’s easy to say that and it’s easy to look good like that when you’re in the ring with a bunch of punch bags who are there to lose,” Wardley stated during their final press conference Thursday night in Riyadh. “He’s not faced anyone of any worth, of any level. So, there’s nothing there for me to look at and go, ‘Oh, yeah, OK, actually maybe he has done that, maybe he has shown this, maybe he has shown that. There’s nothing I’ve seen in any fights that’s made me consider that at all. So, it’s all smoke and mirrors for me.”
The 26-year-old Adeleye is 12-0, including 11 knockouts, and has stopped six straight opponents inside the distance. Wardley (16-0, 15 KOs) feels Adeleye deserved to lose his six-rounder against Poland’s Kamil Sokolowski, whom Adeleye edged on points in April 2021 at York Hall in London.
Sokolowski entered that bout with a 10-21-2 record. The 12 opponents Adeleye has beaten had a combined record of 81-135-8 before Adeleye defeated them.
The 6-foot-4, 232-pound Adeleye is still convinced that Wardley is the one who has accepted a fight for which he isn’t ready.
“All the opponents he’s been in with, I [would] do the same job on them as well,” Adeleye said. “You know, if I fought the same level he fought I would have the same record. So, you know, like I said, Saturday night is two days away. The talking’s done now. We’ll see how tough he is.”
The 28-year-old Wardley stopped American Michael Coffie (13-4, 10 KOs) in the fourth round of his last fight. Referee Howard Foster was criticized for stepping between them and halting that scheduled 10-rounder too soon on the Anthony Joshua-Jermaine Franklin undercard April 1 at O2 Arena in London.
The 6-foot-5, 241-pound Wardley nevertheless extended his knockout streak to 15. He hasn’t gone the distance since Wardley defeated Jakub Wojcik (then 8-17-2) on points in his four-round pro debut in April 2017 at York Hall.
In his bout before he stopped Coffie, Wardley overwhelmed another Brit, Nathan Gorman. Wardley dropped Gorman (19-2, 13 KOs) twice in the second round and once in the third round, which caused Gorman’s trainer to throw in the towel last November 26 at OVO Arena Wembley in London.
The bout between Wardley and Adeleye will be the last on the pay-per-view undercard to be broadcast before Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) faces Ngannou (pro debut) in the main event – a 10-round, non-title fight. TNT Sports Box Office will offer the five-fight show in the United Kingdom (£21.95; 7 p.m. BST) and ESPN will distribute it in the United States ($79.99; 2 p.m. EDT; 11 a.m. PDT).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.