By Scott Gilfoid: Peter Fury, the trainer for unbeaten IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, says IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua needs to be cautious with his new IBF mandatory challenger Joseph Parker (19-0, 16 KOs), who just finished defeating ring veteran Carlos Takam by a 12 round decision last Saturday night in their IBF heavyweight eliminator bout in New Zealand.
Parker will likely need to wait until 2017 before he gets his mandatory title shot against Joshua, because Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has several different fighters he’s thinking of matching against him for his fight in November.
None of them are named Parker. Hearn wants to match Joshua against Tyson Fury in November if he beats Wladimir Klitschko in their rematch on July 9. If not Fury, then heavyweights that American boxing fans are familiar with like Bryant Jennings or Bermane Stiverne.
Joshua just signed a multi-fight contract with Showtime Boxing, and Hearn wants to put him in with heavyweights that Americans can recognize every now and then.
Peter believes that the 6’4” Parker is very similar to Joshua. He doesn’t say how he’s similar, but he must mean in terms of size, aggressiveness and punching power. I personally don’t see Parker and Joshua having that much in common. They attack their opponents differently, and have different types of punching styles they like to use.
The only thing I see that they have in common is size, hand speed and perhaps power. Parker might punch a little harder but not by much. Joshua throws more punches. He’s a guy that goes out and throws slow arm shots, and dares his opponents to stand in there with him and trade.
That style is an accident waiting to happen. Heck, Joshua almost came apart against Dillian Whyte last December. If not for a shoulder injury Whyte suffered after hurting Joshua in the 2nd, he would have likely finished Joshua.
“It’s a very good fight for both of them. It’ll be the first time Joshua has fought someone similar to himself,” said Peter to skysports.com. “Joshua needs to be very aware of Parker rather than the other way around. Parker is a serious test and is up there. I thought Parker did very well. He can’t do more than win the fight and he’ll come on leaps and bounds.”
The only way I give Parker a chance at beating Joshua is if he can fight really hard for the first six rounds of the contest. If Parker can throw nonstop punches for the first six rounds, then I give him a chance of beating Joshua. Parker looked tired at times even fighting hard for portions of the rounds against Takam. That’s not going to work against Joshua because he likes to bum rush his opponents at the start of his fights and just throw a ton of shots.
Joshua is still fighting with the same style he had in his amateur days. If you look at Joshua’s fights in the Olympics, he’d storm after his opponents and throw tons of shots. The style led to Joshua struggling badly in all four fights in the 2012 Olympics, and he was very, very fortunate to win any of those fights. I had Joshua losing all four of his contests in that Olympics. He was getting nailed too much, especially by his Italian, Cuban and Kazakhstan opponents.
“I think Parker is getting there. Takam was a tough fight and is a tough fight for anyone,” said Peter.
If Parker can get another three or four fights before he faces Joshua, it would do him a world of good. He’s too green right now to take that fight off the back of his win over Takam, Parker has a mismatch scheduled against 40-year-old Solomon Haumono on July 21 in New Zealand. If Parker could follow that win up with fights against the likes of Andy Ruiz Jr., Chris Arreola, Kubrat Pulev, Johann Duhaupas, Bermane Stiverne or Artur Szpilka, I think it would do him a world of good.
With the way Joshua fights, he’s going to get it sooner or later once he faces someone with punching power, stamina and the chin to stand up to his shots long enough to tire him out. The 250lb. Joshua is going to get worn down sooner or later by a heavyweight that can match his fast pace to take advantage of all those bodybuilding muscles he’s carrying around.