Usyk Vacates WBO Belt, Wardley Becomes New Champion

Fabio Wardley (20-0-1, 19 KOs) has been elevated to WBO heavyweight champion after Oleksandr Usyk vacated his belt today with that organization.

Wardley Wakes Up a World Champion

Usyk’s decision to vacate his WBO belt was predicted, as he’s in a position to make a lot more money fighting Anthony Joshua or Tyson Fury in 2026.

Business Over Legacy for Usyk

Financially, it made more sense for the 38-year-old Oleksandr (24-0, 15 KOs) to vacate the WBO title and wait for Fury or Joshua to fall into his lap by the forces of gravity than to take a risky title defense against the much younger, high-volume knockout artist Wardley. He’s an entirely different type of fighter than those two or anyone Usyk has faced since moving up to the heavyweight division in 2019.

At this point in Usyk’s career, it’s highly questionable if he could beat Wardley. His punch resistance is unreal, and he is an all-out attack-oriented type of fighter with knockout power in either hand.

Wardley, 30, captured the WBO interim belt last month, knocking out Joseph Parker (36-4, 24 KOs) in the 11th round on October 25, 2025, at the O2 Arena in London, England.

WBO announced Usyk has relinquished the WBO Heavyweight Championship.

Therefore, Fabio Wardley is THE NEW WBO WORLD CHAMPION! 👑 pic.twitter.com/OKzByXCjig

— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) November 17, 2025

Queensberry’s Next Move

Now that Wardley holds the WBO title, it’ll be interesting to see who his promoters at Queensberry have him defend against next. It’s not likely to be Moses Itauma, as they have him going on a different path toward the WBA belt.

Okolie: The In-House Option

One obvious choice is Lawrence Okolie, whom they promote and is ranked #4 by the WBO. It’s not a fight that would interest U.S boxing fans or even many in the UK. But there are enough Brits who would still want to see Wardley defend against Okolie for it to be doable.

The Global-Interest Opponents

If Queensberry wants to give Wardley someone who will attract worldwide interest, they’ll choose one of these heavyweights:

• Frank Sanchez
• Filip Hrgovic
• Agit Kabayel
• Richard Torrez Jr.
• Jared Anderson

Wardley’s recent 11th-round TKO win over Parker was questionable in the minds of some boxing fans. They felt that referee Howard Foster pulled the plug a little too quickly when Parker was against the ropes, looking in trouble but still dodging punches.

Parker wasn’t throwing anything back and had only thrown seven punches, landing only two in two minutes of action in the 11th. It left Foster with little choice but to halt the contest because Wardley was machine-gunning the helpless-looking Parker.