FABIO WARDLEY resorted to a diet of ice cream and noodles after his brutal fight against Frazer Clarke.
The pair put on a thriller over 12 rounds in March of last year – which ended in a draw.
Wardley was left covered in blood due to his busted nose and a jaw injury left him barely able to chew in the days after.
He told The Times: “It’s a fate that you have to accept if you do this sport properly.
“I probably should’ve gone to the hospital afterwards. I remember being sat in my hotel room and I couldn’t sleep because my head was pounding, like vibrating.
“When I lay down, I felt sick. If I sat up, I felt sick. My face looked like the Elephant Man. My nose was stitched up.
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“I’d bitten my tongue about 100 times. I couldn’t chew for three days because of my jaw, so I just ate ice cream and noodles, but that’s part of it.
“Those fights are going to happen and you might get knocked out, but if you carry that around with you and hesitate because you’re scared of it, it could have a negative impact on how you fight and almost make it more likely to happen. You’ve got to just take it on the chin.”
Wardley scored a knockdown in round five and Clarke had a point off to even the judges scorecards.
But Wardley won the rematch six months later with a brutal first-round knockout that left Clarke hospitalised.
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Now the Ipswich super-fan returns on Saturday at Portman Road against Australian Justis Huni.
Huni won the amateur World Youth Championships in 2016 – the same year Wardley had his first unlicensed white collar bout.
Wardley said: “Huni is another opponent from a completely different end of entry in boxing terms.
“After starting in white-collar, anything was a win. This wasn’t realistic, but you always imagine.”
Wardley had four fights on the unlicensed circuit – winning them all by KO – after foregoing an amateur career.
Now he is on the cusp of a world title shot as part of one of British boxing’s most unlikely success stories.
Wardley said: “I fought at the O2, then I headlined the O2, I’ve fought in Saudi Arabia as the chief support to Tyson Fury and to Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol.
“It keeps feeling like we’ve peaked and that it can’t get any better and now I’m fighting at the stadium in my hometown.
“I’m genuinely on the edge of a world title, which sounds crazy for me just to say.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
