JOSEPH PARKER feels Fabio Wardley’s white-collar boxing background should be consigned to the past and will not take him lightly on Saturday night.

Parker (36-3, 24KOs) has swapped waiting around for undisputed world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk for a bout with British fighter Wardley (19-0-1, 18KOs) at the Dome.

Wardley’s entrance into boxing occurred via a handful of white-collar bouts around the same time Parker got his hands on the WBO title in 2016, but the New Zealander, with an enormous amateur pedigree, downplayed any notion Saturday will be straightforward.

“For me it is a great story,” WBO mandatory challenger Parker said.

“With the white-collar background, not going through the same route that other fighters have been through like being an amateur and going around the world, so to do what he’s done, it is quite amazing, but I don’t think we should be touching on it any more.

“He’s actually done really good in the professional game and now look where he’s at.

“I know he had that background as a white-collar fighter, but now he has a lot more experience under his belt and he is in this position because he works hard, backs himself and believes in himself.”

Wardley’s reputation has grown in recent years, especially after two thrilling bouts with Olympian Frazer Clarke, but the sceptics were out after he required a stunning 10th-round knock-out to beat Justis Huni after he trailed on judges’ scorecards.

Parker countered: “People are judging him too harshly on one performance. Look at Frazer, he has been in the game a long time and the way Fabio fought from first fight to second fight, made adjustments, made a devastating KO.

“He was getting out-boxed [against Huni] but in boxing they always say it takes one punch and that is the best example, that it takes one punch to change the course of everything.

“We have seen he can carry his power until last rounds, so the preparation is still the same but I need to be even fitter than I was in the last fight.”