For Joseph Parker and Andy Lee, 2025 has been a year of constant battles, in and out of the ring. Eight months ago, the pair were preparing for Parker’s February clash with Daniel Dubois, only for the fight to collapse during fight week due to Dubois’ illness. Parker instead fought and stopped Martin Bakole on 48 hours’ notice, a chaotic turn that now feels symbolic of their unpredictable year.
Since then, Lee has been everywhere. He guided Paddy Donovan through two turbulent fights with Lewis Crocker, spent time in Ben Whittaker’s corner for an explosive April knockout win, and helped Hamzah Sheeraz halt Edgar Berlanga in July. Yet amid all those battles, the focus always returns to Parker, and therefore the goal of climbing back to world champion status.
“I wouldn’t say I’m excited by the fight,” Lee said ahead of Parker’s bout with Fabio Wardley this Saturday at London’s O2 Arena. “It’s one battle after another. That’s how I look at it. My drive and hunger are the same for every fight: to win and improve the fighters.”
For Parker, now 36-3 (24 KOs) and the WBO’s top-ranked heavyweight, the mission is about legacy more than money. “He’s financially secure and already been a world champion,” Lee explained. “Now every win is about legacy - for his family and his children. But he still has the desire to become a two-time world champion.”
That journey continues against Wardley, an unbeaten puncher whose raw, white-collar origins make him one of the heavyweight division’s most unorthodox contenders. “He’s very unusual,” Lee admitted. “He’s beaten some good names - Nathan Gorman, Frazer Clarke, David Adeleye, Justis Huni - and he’s done it with more than just power.”
Still, Parker’s experience could be decisive. “Joe has been in with genuine punchers — Zhilei Zhang, Deontay Wilder, Bakole — and he’s been able to neutralize them all,” Lee said. “But he has to stay sharp because when you’re in with a puncher, anything can happen.”
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