The British boxer will make the first defence of his WBO world title belt against Daniel Dubois on May 9 and explained that he deliberately picked a challenging bout against his hard-hitting compatriot.
Wardley told Boxing News magazine: "People ask me, 'Why fight Dubois for your first defence? You've had some hard fights; go for something easier.'
"No, I want real fights, real competitive fights, to test myself against the best. I will know in myself if I've picked an easy fight just to win and look good, and I would have less respect for myself knowing that.
"I'd rather go in with a fighter that I know is of high level, high calibre, and know I have the potential of losing, but I'd come out of that with my head held high and know I gave it my all, rather than knocking over someone just to get another notch on my record."
Wardley became WBO world champion when Oleksandr Usyk vacated the belt last November and the boxer insists that he does "consider" himself to be a champion, despite not claiming the belt in the squared circle.
He said: "Yeah, look, it's not ideal, it's not the way you dreamt it, but for all intents and purposes I do consider myself a world champion, because if Usyk had vacated that belt earlier, it would have been on the line for that (Joseph Parker) fight and I would have won it in the ring.
"So, it's not like one of those other situations you've seen before where months and months pass by and then it's randomly just kind of given to the next person. It was a very short timeframe and whoever was to win that was going to fight Usyk anyway."
As it turned out, Usyk turned down a bout with Wardley to take on Dutch kickboxer Rico Verhoeven instead – although the world champion is confident that he will get his chance against the legendary Ukrainian should he defeat Dubois.
He said: "The short and long-term goal is Oleksandr Usyk.
"I was on his list before – he said the Wardley-Parker winner would get the fight. I won; I didn't get the fight. Fine; we keep it moving. Now he wants to fight this kickboxer and says he then wants to take on the winner of Wardley-Dubois.
"Hopefully this time around, after I've proved myself twice over, he will take the fight."
