LONDON – At the time of writing, no fewer than six British boxers have tried and failed to beat Oleksandr Usyk over the course of nine different fights.

It all started back in 2013 when the Ukrainian beat Joe Joyce in a World Series of Boxing bout on a famous night at York Hall in Bethnal Green, which also featured a win for his old friend Vasily Lomachenko.

In the 12 years since that night, it has been a similar story for Usyk, who has emerged as one of history’s great Brit bashers, at both cruiserweight and heavyweight. Whether he was champion or challenger, nobody from these shores has ever got the better of him.

Now, following his victory over Joseph Parker at O2 Arena on Saturday night, a 30-year-old from Suffolk called Fabio Wardley is next into the firing line against the three-time undisputed world champion. Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs) can make it a perfect 10 against the Brits, but in Wardley he will face a man who sticks out like a sore thumb among the rest of the list.

From Joyce in the amateurs, through Tony Bellew, Derek Chisora, Anthony Joshua, Daniel Dubois and Tyson Fury as a professional, the 38-year-old from Crimea has always faced men with a certain degree of amateur schooling. While not all of them claimed an Olympic gold medal like Joshua did, all of the above boxed for their country.

Of course, not only did Wardley never earn an international vest, he famously never boxed as an amateur whatsoever. A short loop around the white-collar circuit, where recruitment consultants and telemarketing salesmen laid in wait, was Wardley’s only schooling before he turned professional in 2017. He has been learning on the job ever since.

Usyk has simply known too much for the six Brits that have tried so far, yet Wardley (20-0-1, 19 KOs) is interested to see how he deals with a man who has been working from a different textbook all along.

“Look,” Wardley said, “I’m the next one up, I’m the next one at it. I’ve got big, broad shoulders, so when it comes to carrying the hopes of the nation into this fight, that’s fine by me. I’ll carry the pressure, there’s no problem. The fact is I’m something different to the others.

“It’s not to say those guys are similar or normal, but they all come from similar backgrounds and have a similar way of doing things. But I come from a different school, or a non-school, however you want to call it. We have thrown all the usual guys at him, our top dogs, and have got the same result. So, yeah, let me have a crack with something different and see where we end up.”

Promoter Frank Warren revealed that he is hoping for Wardley’s mandatory challenge to Usyk to take place sometime in March. The Ipswich puncher will start as a huge underdog. It would be of little surprise if he actually starts as the widest price of any Brit against Usyk so far.

There had been suggestions that at 38, having achieved everything already and with an eye on retirement, Usyk might have lost a step. On the contrary, when he beat Dubois in their rematch at Wembley Stadium in July, it was perhaps Usyk’s best performance at heavyweight so far.

Wardley, meanwhile, has remained undefeated and continues to nudge his KO percentage higher up into the 90s. His sensational stoppage of Parker, which came when he trailed on two cards at the time, was his 19th in 20 victories which took him to exactly 95 percent, the best of any top-level fighter in any weight class the world over. Certainly the best of any fighter Usyk has faced in his lifetime.

“I don’t know how I put this one into words,” Wardley said of the opportunity to face the undisputed king. “That has been the goal for a number of years now, that has been the objective and has been everything I’ve wanted. So, yeah, we’re there now. It’s a wild one to say, but one of the generational talents, one of the best to ever do it for all the marbles. There’s nothing more I could ask for and there’s nothing more I could want within this sport. So, just like everything else that’s led me here, all I’ve ever asked for is the opportunity and I’ve got that.

“I’m not planning on stopping here. I’m not planning on getting in the ring with Usyk and saying, ‘Thanks for having me,’ and just rolling over. That’s not what I’m about. I think you saw that against Parker. So, when that bell does go when me and Usyk do finally get in the ring, he’s going to have to work for it. Every round is the last round to me. I don’t take rounds off, chill out, take it easy in the middle rounds. Every round is the 12th round to me, every round is a championship round. I’m trying to get people out of there.”

For now, with the bruising on his face after nearly 11 absorbing rounds with Parker still fresh, Wardley will head home to Ipswich and have a rest. For the first time, he will return home from a fight to his baby daughter, who was born a week after his spectacular 10th-round knockout victory over Justis Huni in June.

He was close to tears when he spoke about her at the post-match press conference, which took place in the early hours of Sunday morning. He has earned some down time with her and his partner.

It was put to Wardley that by beating Parker, a former world champion and the man considered by many as the best of the rest at heavyweight, he would have finally silenced the doubters who labelled him “White Collar Wardley,” a moniker he has now assumed as his own.

“I think I have. but there will still be a number of blogs, articles, stories and whatever else about how I was seconds away from losing to Parker,” Wardley added. “That I beat Parker. but I won’t beat Usyk and this, that and whatever else. But I’m not here to please everyone else. I’m here to chase my dream, chase my journey. As long as I go home and my family are happy with me, they love me, they're proud of me and my team are proud of everything I’ve done. I don’t care, with all due respect, what any of you have to say.

“All the bumps in the road have been what’s made me. All the setbacks, all of you guys saying I’m just a white-collar guy and that I’m not going to do that well, all of that builds resilience, builds callousness. And that’s why when I’m in the ring on the night, I don’t care if it’s not going my way, I don’t care if the judges don’t have me up, I believe in me and I know the people around me believe in me. All of that has built resilience for me to come through, and it’s all been proven that I can.”