From Football Pitch to Heavyweight Champion: The Rise of Fabio Wardley and a Plea for Youth Funding
Fabio Wardley’s improbable journey to the pinnacle of British boxing – poised to become the nation’s 11th world heavyweight champion following Oleksandr Usyk’s WBO belt relinquishment – began not in a gym, but on a football pitch in Suffolk nearly 17 years ago.It was there he first encountered Robert Hodgins, the coach who would ultimately guide him to this historic moment.
The initial meeting, though, was far from harmonious. As Hodgins recalls,the 13-year-old Wardley bristled at being substituted during a football session. “He was my height back then when he was 13,” Hodgins told The Ring. “The first time I met him I was filling in on a football session and I subbed him off. He didn’t like that decision too much, but we got talking about boxing.I jokingly said to him ‘do you think you could take me, Fabio?’ He’s 13 years old and skinny as a rake but he replied ‘I don’t think I can, I know’.”
This early display of confidence, and perhaps a touch of defiance, occurred within the framework of the Catch22 Suffolk Positive Futures program. This initiative, still operating today, aims to create “a safer place by diverting young people from anti-social behavior and gang-related activity and providing opportunities that they may not otherwise have access to, to help better their life chances.” Hodgins observed that Wardley,while not a “bad kid,” possessed a strong will and a need for constructive engagement.”He was strong-minded and did what he wanted,” Hodgins explained. “I don’t think the system gave him an outlet, he had to be doing something.With Positive Futures he did a couple of boxing sessions but realy he excelled at football and he was a very good player.”
The program served as a crucial intervention, offering a positive alternative to potentially problematic paths. “The project was for kids who were misbehaving but he jumped on them as well,” Hodgins continued. “He wasn’t the typical kid getting kicked out of school or anything like that but he was still a handful and wanted somewhere to channel it.He needed to do something instead of sitting around, he’s a very clever man.”
Despite this initial exposure, boxing didn’t immediately capture Wardley’s inventiveness.His focus remained firmly on football for years to come.It wasn’t until his early 20s,following a football injury,that he actively sought out Hodgins’ guidance.”He disappeared for a while,” Hodgins said, “Like a lot of them do.But then he walked back into my gym when he was 20 years old after he got injured playing football.We used to get 100 kids at the football sessions but then only five or six at the boxing,Fabio had been one of the football kids but when he came back he had his heart set on boxing.”
The conversion was remarkable. “it had been a few years and when he came back in he’s 6-foot-5, strong and athletic and it was like he’d never left. You could tell straight away how much he wanted it and he wanted to do everything straight away.” This eagerness manifested immediately in a desire to spar, despite his inexperience. “I remember he had these big pink 16-ounce Winning gloves
“I’m not involved in Positive Futures as much any more,” Hodgins said. “Fab was lucky to have the opportunity to come in and try those free classes back them, without them, who knows where we all might be. Fabio is a clear example of what these youth schemes can do for people’s lives and we need them. Could we find another fabio without that funding? No I don’t think so. It just widens the horizon for a kid that may not want to take up boxing,or try sport,to come in and find out there is a natural talent for it. It’s upsetting that schemes don’t get funding like that nowadays as if it wasn’t for Positive Futures and their funding,we may never have found Fab.”
