Fabio Wardley scores stunning stoppage over Justis Huni to claim WBA Interim belt

Fabio Wardley comes from behind to stop Justis Huni with a single shotFabio Wardley comes from behind to stop Justis Huni with a single shot

By Tim Rickson8 Jun 2025 · Updated 31 Jul 2026 · 2 min read

Fabio Wardley vs Justis Huni WBA Interim Title

Fabio Wardley comes from behind to stop Justis Huni with a single shot

Fabio Wardley survived a scare in front of his hometown crowd at his beloved Portman Road stadium on Saturday, June 7, live on DAZN . The Ipswich FC fan was heading towards his first defeat until he pulled it the bag in the championship rounds to claim the vacant WBA Interim title.

Fabio Wardley (19-0-1, 18 KOs) was jabbing Justis Huni (12-1, 7 KOs) sharply in the opener. Huni got through with a nice body-head combination.

Huni trapped Wardley on the ropes in the third and landed heavy left hooks to the body and a right to the head, but Wardley took it and fired back. They fought a lot closer in the third round, exchanging furiously in the final minute. The reaction from the crowd was deafening.

Huni was stepping in close to throw his heavy hooks, winning the fight on Carl Frampton's scorecard 48-47 after the first five rounds.

Wardley was leaving his left hand dangling low and got caught by a stiff jab in the first minute of the seventh stanza. Then Huni landed a lovely left hand that caused Wardley to fall back into the ropes, just slightly off-balance but appeared hurt, forced to hold. Wardley jabbing to the body, but Huni was taking over at this point and landed a big overhand right to the head in the final 30. Wardley misses wildly with a right hook then ends the round getting punched.

In the eighth round, Wardley was gambling on big shots but missing the target. Huni was in his element, really enjoying his domination in his first UK fight. Carl Frampton's scorecard had Huni winning rounds 3-8 to be up 78-74 by the start of the ninth round.

Wardley was struggling to pull the trigger and kept getting caught. Promoter Frank Warren was becoming very vocal in the corner, urging his heavyweight charge on. Wardley threw a jab and uppercut combination, as Huni just stepped off the gas slightly in the 10th round, just waiting a little longer than usual to open up. Then, the Australian walked straight onto an overhand right and dropped to the canvas heavily. He got back to his feet but he was too unsteady to continue.

Huni made the mistake of telegraphing his move, lining up the right hand with the jab and Wardley gambled and landed the right hand from hell to win the fight in the most dramatic of circumstances.

Wardley was so far down on the cards, frustratingly unable to fight the fight he is known for, outboxed in nearly every single round by a fighter with a far better pedigree, and then in true heavyweight style, one punch just changed it all.

It's the 18th knockout of Wardley's incredible career, but the longest one yet, taking seven rounds to despatch of David Adeleye in 2023 and all his other knockouts coming within six rounds or less, six in the first-round.