By Patrick McHugh: It’s only been days since Joseph Parker (19-0, 16 KOs) defeated Carlos Takam by a 12 round unanimous decision last Saturday night, but now Parker is already scheduled for another fight in two months from now against #12 WBA Solomon Haumono (24-2-2, 21 KOs) on July 21 at the Horncastle Arena, in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Haumono is at least as good as heavyweight David Haye’s last opponent Arnold Gjergjaj but no better. It’s good match-making for Parker in giving him a body that he can test out new things on and use as a tool to improve his game.
The 6’2” Haumono has good punching power, but poor hand speed and defensive skills. Kevin Johnson knocked Haumono out in the 10th round in their fight in April 2013. Haumono was also beaten by Justin Whitehead by a 10 round split decision in 2009, Haumono is someone that can be problems for Parker if he lands enough shots, but it’s not likely that he’ll be around in the fight long enough for him to unload his heavy artillery.
The 6’4” Parker is the new IBF heavyweight mandatory to champion Anthony Joshua. However, that fight likely won’t take place until next year because Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn appears to be in no rush to have him fight the 24-year-old Parker.
Hearn is talking about wanting to have Joshua fight IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury later this year in November if Joshua wins his next fight against Dominic Breazeale next month on June 25th at the O2 Arena in London, UK. If Hearn can’t arrange a fight between Joshua and Fury, then he’s interested in matching him against Bryant Jennings or Bermane Stiverne.
Parker’s fight against Takam showed that he needs a great deal of improvement if he’s to beat Joshua. One area where Parker looked vulnerable was his stamina. He looked tired at times and failed to fight hard for three minutes of every round. Takam looked even worse than Parker in the stamina department, and this enabled Parker to do just a little bit more than him in each round. Both guys like tired much of the time and incapable of throwing a lot of shots.
If Parker is to have any kind of chance against Joshua, he’ll need to be able to fight a full three minutes of every round for the first six rounds at the minimum. Joshua will be looking to throw many punches in the first half of the fight, and if Parker can’t match his high workrate, he’ll get torpedoed quickly. That’s what Joshua likes to do. He comes fast, and throws a lot of shots to get his opponents out of there.
Takam looked good enough to beat Parker last Saturday if he could have taken the fight to him more. Takam hurt Parker at least once in the fight when he went after him early. It was lucky for Parker that he wasn’t fighting a younger heavyweight that is capable of fighting with a lot of energy. Even an older heavyweight like Luis Ortiz probably would have been too much for Parker last Saturday.
Parker could use a good two more years of experience in working out the flaws in his game before challenging for a world title. The problem is Parker isn’t going to get two years. He’s probably only going to get one or two more fights before faces Joshua. If he’s not ready to go by that time, then he’ll likely be knocked out quickly by the British fighter.
