Fabio Wardley won his Portman Road fight in sensational style, knocking out Justis Huni with a huge right hand in the 10th round to claim the WBA interim Heavyweight title with the Australian looking on course for victory.
Huni, a replacement for initial opponent Jarrell Miller, who pulled out with a shoulder injury less than six weeks ahead of the contest, proved a classy opponent and was well ahead on points according to most observers with Wardley bleeding from the mouth, looking tired and with the Portman Road crowd quietened.
But, out of the blue, Wardley unleashed a 10th-round right hand which felled the 26-year-old from Brisbane and the fight was over.
Wardley, 30, was watched by Town boss Kieran McKenna and chairman and CEO Mark Ashton, who he sits alongside at home games, on a wet night at Portman Road with a big crowd of 20,000-plus still turning out to see the Chantry-based fighter stretch his unbeaten record to 20, 19 wins and a draw with Frazer Clarke.
"Before we say anything, I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone in this building tonight,” Wardley told DAZN afterwards.
"I've been on this weird and wonderful journey in boxing and I wouldn't be here without you. This isn't just for me, it's for all of you.
"I don't profess to being any [Oleksandr] Usyk or Justis Huni who has all the skills, but I know how to win fights and that's one thing I knew I had to do tonight.
"Justis Huni is a great operator. We’d drilled everything over and over again. I should’ve performed better in some of those rounds.
"He's a great boxer, some great skills and he showed me everything he had tonight. I didn’t expect to bank rounds like that with Justis. I hurt him a bit in the first round and maybe I had too much confidence early on.”
Huni, suffering his first professional defeat in his 13th fight, added: "That's my curse. I even said before this fight it only takes one second to switch off, it happened tonight.
"I'm grateful to Fabio and his team and to Ipswich to be able to perform in front of you. Get behind him, he's going to do great things.
"He's just an awesome fighter. He never gave up and he got the win, he deserves it. Thank you Ipswich for the opportunity to perform here, I'm grateful.”
https://x.com/DAZNBoxing/status/1931477166669111691
Wardley’s promoter Frank Warren said: "Eat your heart out Deontay Wilder, that was a Deontay Wilder moment. He's got a big heart, he's a powerful man and again, he stopped another one.
"I’ve got to take my hat off to Justis Huni, they both boxed very well. Ipswich, you did him proud and he did Ipswich proud too.
"After that fight, it will settle the heavyweight division now to know who will be the mandatories. He is there. He’s going to take a bit of time out now. Let the dust settle. He’s in the position and he’s done that through sheer grit, sheer heart.
"This is such a fabulous place to put a fight on. I’m sorry about the rain, but everyone stayed and both men put on a great fight.”
https://x.com/Queensberry/status/1931480543620972848
Wardley may now be in line to face the victor of next month’s unification fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois.
Meanwhile, on the undercard, Ipswich’s Jack Williams won a unanimous points victory in his Super-Bantamweight fight with Argentine Fernando Joaquin Valdez.
Gideon Onyenani, who is with the 23 Parachute Engineer Regiment at Rock Barracks near Woodbridge, drew his Lightweight contest with Sam Gilley.
Colchester’s Lewis Richardson, a bronze medallist at the Paris Olympics and who sold pies at Portman Road as a student, beat Dmitri Protkunas on his professional Super-Welterweight debut.