Fabio Wardley ‘Frontrunner’ To Headline Matchroom’s July 29 Fight Card
British Heavyweight Champion Fabio Wardley Could Make The First Defence On July 29
Matchroom Boxing will be staging a UK show on July 29 and British Heavyweight champion Fabio Wardley (16-0, 15 KOs) looks like the man to headline it.
CEO Frank Smith told International Boxing News that Wardley was ‘definitely’ a frontrunner to main event the card with the long-awaited Middleweight matchup between Felix Cash and Ammo Williams and the rescheduled British title final eliminator which pits Kieron Conway and Linus Udofia also potentially featuring.
Udofia-Conway was announced for yesterday’s card in Manchester after Tyler Denny withdrew from the eliminator with Conway. The Northamptonian suffered an injury, however, which saw the fight postponed and July 29 now looks the likely home for it.
Cash and Ammo were supposed to clash earlier this year after a heated build-up last November/December but Cash decided that he needed an additional fight before going into what would be a 50-50 matchup of contenders.
They were both scheduled to have separate bouts on the April 1 Joshua-Franklin card with plans in place for them to headline against each other on June 10 at Wembley Area if they both won. Cash, however, pulled out of his fight on the week and those arrangements were scrapped with new signing Sunny Edwards defending his world title on the date instead. Matchroom now hopes to once again make the fight for July 29, most likely in London as the co-feature to a card topped by Wardley.
The Ipswich pugilist has steamrolled through his opposition in devastating fashion having never gone past six rounds, despite being scheduled for more than that in his last ten fights. Wardley stopped Nathan Gorman in what was considered a 50-50 fight to win the vacant British title last November as co-feature to Dillian Whyte.
His sole 2023 appearance so far was his fourth-round stoppage of Michael Coffie in the chief support to Anthony Joshua. There isn’t really anywhere for Wardley to go now other than to headline and his ordered fight with Frazer Clarke, which captured the interest of boxing fans, was the perfect opportunity to do so.
Wardley-Clarke was not to be though with the 2020 Olympic bronze medallist pulling out of the scheduled purse bids for the Lonsdale belt and giving up his mandatory position. David Adeleye, the fighter that probably should’ve been mandated in the first place, now looks to be the designated challenger for Wardley with a fight between the pair likely for October/November.
Before that, the unbeaten Heavyweight will headline on July 29 and hopes to defend the Lonsdale belt. English champion Solomon Dacres, who is also with Matchroom, could be an option as well as Dave Allen.
“That’s why I’m here tonight (at Lara Wood 2), Allen told Matchroom Boxing, I want him (Wardley) in July. I think I’ve grown up a lot mentally and physically and I’ll knock that man out in July 100%”. Wardley was perceptive to the fight with Allen and with the name-value of the ‘White Rhino’, who has featured on multiple PPV cards and headlined at The O2, Wardley-Allen may well materialise.
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