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Joseph Parker v Fabio Wardley: How to watch the big fight on Virgin TV
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Two of the world’s biggest heavyweight stars face off in London this weekend and it’s live on DAZN with Virgin Media. Here’s everything you need to know
By Chris Miller, Feature Writer
- Published
- 22 October 2025
If you call someone “nice”, you probably mean it as a compliment. If you call a boxer “nice”, though, you probably mean that they don’t have what it takes to reach the top. It’s a term that’s been applied to both Joseph Parker and Fabio Wardley during their careers. But when they face each other in the ring, these two fighters will leave that tag behind, and you’d better believe there won’t be anything nice about it.
This is a fight that shows the strength of the current heavyweight division. Beyond the headline names like Oleksandr Usyk, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, there are hugely talented boxers worthy of world titles in any era. And you can see the meeting between these two potential superstars at The O2 in London live on DAZN with Virgin Media, starting at 6.30pm on Saturday 25 October.
And no matter how nice they are outside the ring, on the night, each man will be laser-focused on putting their opponent on the canvas. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of this explosive night of boxing.
Joseph Parker: what you need to know
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When Parker lost to Joshua and Dillian Whyte in quick succession in 2018, many pundits thought it was over for him – he’d hit his ceiling. The WBO world title he’d gained would be the limit of his success. Perhaps he was too nice after all.
But Parker wasn’t finished. He returned home to New Zealand and started to rebuild, which included working with a new trainer in the form of former middleweight world champ Andy Lee.
Despite the setback of a defeat against Joe Joyce, Parker didn’t deviate from his path. He knocked out Simon Kean and then put in a career-best performance against Deontay Wilder to triumph against the odds. And when the opportunity arose to challenge Zhilei Zhang for the WBO interim belt, he grabbed it, landing twice as many power shots as the Chinese boxer to win by majority decision.
Like all heavyweights, Parker wants a shot at the undisputed champ, Usyk – and after defeating Martin Bakole (a last-minute replacement for Daniel Dubois), he might have got it. But Usyk picked up an injury, forcing the contenders to bide their time, so Parker turned to another of the highest-ranked challengers: Fabio Wardley.
Fabio Wardley: what you need to know
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Wardley took an unusual route into pro boxing. He didn’t don the gloves until he was 20, and he started out in white-collar bouts while working as a recruitment consultant in his home town of Ipswich. But there’s no doubting his ability. He won the English heavyweight title in his ninth pro fight, the British title in his 15th and claimed the WBA interim belt in his last fight against Justis Huni in a special night at Portman Road stadium.
His approach in the ring is fundamentally straightforward. No-one would call him a boxer of great mobility or subtlety. But his record speaks for itself: 18 of his 19 wins have been knockouts thanks to his ferocious punching power. Against Huni, Wardley was behind on all the judges’ cards when he produced a phenomenal overhand right in the 10th round.
The Australian wasn’t coming back from that. And that meant that when Usyk was unavailable to face Parker, the Suffolk smasher was first in line.
Parker v Wardley: what are they saying?
It’s no secret that Parker is hungry to take on Usyk, but that doesn’t mean he’s not fully focused on this fight. “I don’t want to be waiting around for Usyk. I want to be busy and I want to fight often,” says the New Zealander. “Every fight’s a risky fight, but at this stage it is a big risk. I have a lot to lose. If I don’t get this right, there’s no point talking about any other fight.”
Whether Parker is interim or full WBO champ makes no difference to Wardley. "This is already a world title fight. With it on the line or without it there, this is the biggest test of my career to date,” he says. “This is my world title fight.”
So what will the outcome be? Parker is confident his experience will make the difference. “Fighting a person like myself is very different to fighting anyone else he has fought,” he says. “There are levels. With the experience I have and what I’ve been working on in New Zealand, I’m excited to see what I can do in the ring.”
“I don’t see this going the distance,” is Wardley’s verdict. “One way or another there is going to be a knockout. We know how much of a right hand I can pull out at any moment. It [could] be the first or 12th round, but one way or another it’s going to land.”
Former world champ Carl Frampton agrees. “There’s a couple of ways that Joe can win. I think there’s only one way that Fabio wins, and that’s by knockout.”
What’s likely to happen next?
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If Parker wins, he’s undoubtedly the number one contender to get a shot at Usyk. It’s hard to know what the laconic Ukrainian’s intentions are but assuming he recovers from injury – and doesn’t vacate his titles, or retire, or decide to take up fly fishing instead – you can expect to see him in the ring with Parker within a few months. As Parker says, “The whole division is just waiting on Usyk and seeing when he’s fit to fight again.”
Could the same be true for Wardley? There’s a sense that even if he wins this fight, he hasn’t yet ascended to the same level as the undisputed champ, who would probably insist on a more prestigious opponent. That might open up the tantalising possibility of a mouthwatering all-British bout with Wardley taking on Dubois, or arguably the most exciting up-and-coming talent in UK boxing: Moses Itauma, the 20-year-old who stopped the veteran Dillian Whyte in the first round in August. In a curious twist, Whyte is Wardley’s manager.
Parker v Wardley: how do they measure up?
Parker v Wardley: undercard details
Ezra Taylor v Steed Woodall
WBA Continental Gold Light Heavyweight Championship
Juergen Uldedaj v Rolly Lambert
IBO World Cruiserweight Championship
Danny Quartermaine v Royston Barney-Smith
Super Featherweight
Tony Curtis Jr v Larry Olivas
Flyweight
Jimmydean Wood v Artjem Spatar
Super Welterweight
Zayn Ahmed v Engel Gomez
Featherweight
Plus more to be announced
When is Joseph Parker v Fabio Wardley on TV?
You can see this fight on DAZN with Virgin Media from 6.30pm on Saturday 25 October 2025. It’s available to order from 11am on Tuesday 21 October and costs £24.99. And even better, this payment will also entitle you to a month’s subscription to DAZN, allowing you to enjoy a month of superb sporting action on DAZN.
The event cannot be recorded and will be repeated on Sunday 26 October at 8am and 2.30pm (last playout). Please note that British Summer Time ends in the early hours of 26 October, so the repeat broadcast times are in UTC (also known as GMT).
The purchase will include access to the fight and will also enable you to redeem one month’s access to DAZN – please see details at point of purchase. Promotion is owned and operated by DAZN.
How can I order the fight?
To watch this event, you must have a TiVo® box, Virgin TV V6 box (powered by TiVo®), a Virgin TV 360 box or Stream box.
Customers with our TiVo® and V6 boxes: Go to Home > On Demand > Live Events. Press the red button then choose the event and follow the instructions on screen. A TV PIN may not be required. To view your booking, once purchased, go to On Demand > Live Events > Event Bookings.
Customers with our Virgin TV 360 or Stream boxes: Go to Home > Pay Per View events rail. Press OK, then choose the event and follow the instructions on screen. A TV PIN may not be required. To view your booking, once purchased, go to Home > Pay Per View events rail.
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Terms
A TV PIN will be required on TiVo® or Virgin TV 360 unless you have changed or make changes to the settings on your box. If you would like to disable the PPV pin prompt on TiVo, complete the following setting changes via your remote: go to Settings > Purchase Controls and ensure the setting is set to “allow purchases without a PIN”. This will disable all PIN prompts for content that does not conflict with the regulatory watershed requirements.
This event CANNOT be recorded and is NOT available to view/purchase via Liberate boxes. Repeats are free once you’ve ordered the event. If you miss the event, you can buy the repeats for the same price. The event is repeated on Sunday 26 October at 8am and 2.30pm (last playout). The event can be watched either live or On Demand during its repeat window.
To check the event has been purchased, TiVo® and V6 customers should go to Home > On Demand > Live Events. The event will be there with a status of “booked”. Virgin TV 360 and Stream customers should go to Home > Saved > Rentals. The event will be there.
TiVo® and V6 customers can view the event on a second TiVo® or V6 box associated with the account without additional purchase. Please note where the second box is a non TiVo® or V6 box it will not be viewable on that box. Once selected, it correctly displays “Purchased” and “View Now”. When “View Now” is selected, it then moves to “Event Bookings”.
Virgin TV 360 customers can view the event on a second Virgin TV 360 box associated with the account without additional purchase. Please note where the second box is a non Virgin TV 360 box it will not be viewable on that box. Customers should go to Home > Saved > Rentals. The event will be there.
DAZN Subscription
Virgin Media will bear responsibility for Virgin Media customers’ transaction for and access to the pay-per-view event. Virgin Media bears no obligations or liability to assist either in communication to customers, redemption, or onward customer support for the one-month subscription of DAZN. Sign-up and terms and conditions will be managed by DAZN. Customers will be able to redeem their one-month DAZN subscription within the linear pay-per-view feed delivered to Virgin Media (during the live transmission and repeat windows only).
If a Virgin Media customer purchases the Pay Per View Event on the Virgin Media Entertainment Service via their device, a QR code graphic and URL link will be included in the linear Pay Per View Event feed delivered to Virgin Media (during the Live Transmission Schedule and Repeat Transmission Schedule). When they scan the QR code, they are taken to a landing web page which includes instructions on how to redeem one-month access to DAZN. One week (approximately) after the Pay Per View Event, DAZN will dispatch the unique gift code to the customer to enable them to redeem the one-month access. For more information visit dazn.com/en-GB/help.
