Fabio Wardley seeks spring date for first WBO world title defence

Wardley would still love an opportunity to take on Usyk, who still holds the WBA, WBC and IBF heavyweight belts, but accepts it is a case of having to bide his time.

“That’s up to the man himself. A fight between us could be as far away or as close as he wants it to be. It could be next or never,” he said.

“He holds the keys in the division, he’s earned that right to dictate things.”

Another opponent Wardley would love to face is former world champion Tyson Fury, who announced the end of his most recent ‘retirement’ two weeks ago.

“He wants a little warm-up fight and then to try and grab a world title around the summer time,” said 31-year-old Wardley.

“We were trying to poke and prod him into a fight but I don’t think he wants to jump that deep into the water after a year out of the ring. He’s going to dip his toe back in and maybe we can catch him in the summer.”

Wardley believes Usyk might be reluctant to take on Fury again in the short term, having beaten him twice already, so Wardley represents the latter’s best opportunity of a world title shot.

“There’s only two options for that – me and Usyk. As a plan he might try to snatch mine off me and then try and get hold of the Usyk fight again,” he added.

Listen to Graeme McLoughlin’s full BBC Radio Suffolk interview with Fabio Wardley from 18:45 GMT on Friday.