Fabio Wardley has said his "biggest gripe" with Oleksandr Usyk was being robbed of the chance to become heavyweight world champion in the ring.
Wardley (20-0-1, 19 KOs) became interim champion in October 2025 with his win against Joseph Parker in. Usyk then vacated the title in November instead of fighting Wardley, who was elevated to full champion.
The Brit has revealed both he and Parker were in talks to fight Usyk prior to their bout in October. The understanding was the Ukrainian would either vacate the belt before the fight, allowing Wardley or Parker to win it, or face the winner later down the track for the undisputed crown.
"Both me and Parker were negotiating back-and--forth with Usyk to get him basically to agree to say look: 'I'll relinquish the belt, you can fight for it on the night but whoever wins obviously has to fight me again for it,'" Wardley said on Wednesday.
"We were going through that we agreed our side, and just because of that conversation I thought well if he's agreed it like that then he'll fight me surely."
However, the fight never materialised and Wardley was elevated to full champion, receiving the belt in the mail.
"That's probably the biggest gripe of the whole thing for me," Wardley continued. "The most aggravating bit was, why didn't you just do it beforehand because if you go do it like a week or two later then like you're taking the p---.
"I guess almost anticlimactic in a sense because you see I've spent years watching people win world titles and it's in the ring and the cheer and the crowd and you raise the belt and you hear 'and the new' ... And you just get it on the end of a phone call."
Adding insult to injury for Wardley, when he did receive his belt, it was engraved with an incorrect nickname.
"Funny story. So I got it maybe three, four weeks ago. I opened it. Looked at it; nice, shiny, cool," Wardley said.
[It's] got the medallions either side. One says the date I won it but the other one says: 'Fabio Wardley ... The white rhino.'
"And I was like what the f--- is going on here then?"
British heavyweight Dave Allen is referred to as 'the white rhino,' while Wardley has no nickname.
Wardley confirmed the WBO apologised and sent him a new belt with correct details.
The WBO champion will defend his title for the first time against Daniel Dubois on May 9 in Manchester.
.