Joseph Parker very confident of beating Anthony Joshua

By Boxing News - 06/29/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten #1 IBF contender Joseph Parker (19-0, 16 KOs) saw IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua’s fight against Dominic Breazeale last Saturday night, and he feels very confident against British fighter when the two of them do face each other, according to Parker’s promoter Dean Lonergan.

Parker is Joshua’s mandatory challenger, and he’s ready to fight him in November or in early 2017. He’ll be ready for that fight when it does take place. Parker, 24, has the youth, jab, size, power and the boxing skills to give Joshua his first loss of his career.

“How is AJ going to go when he’s eating Joseph’s jab all night?” said Lonerman to skysports.com. “After Saturday night, we’re very confident, Joseph is very confident.”

Parker is probably going to have to wait until 2017 before he gets his mandated title shot against Joshua, because his promoter Eddie Hearn said last Saturday night that he wants to ask the IBF to let Joshua get in another voluntary defense before facing Parker next year.

Hearn says he’s confident the IBF will let Joshua slip in another voluntary before they have him face Parker. As far as Parker goes, it’s not a big deal because it gives him more time to keep improving. He plans on staying busy by fighting two or three more times before he faces Joshua.

It’s not surprising that Parker is so confident of beating Joshua, because he’s a pure slugger 100 percent. Even when Joshua was trying to box last Saturday night against Breazeale, he was still there to be hit and not showing that he’s invincible.

Breazeale didn’t look in great shape in the fight, and he sure as heck wasn’t throwing any punches. He made it easy on Joshua by just standing there like a punching bag, taking shots and not throwing anything back.

Parker, 6’4”, is a much different story because he’s going to be moving, throwing power shots, and focusing on not getting hit. The fans saw the skills that Parker showed in his fight against Carlos Takam last May. Parker out-boxed and out-slugged a very good fighter in Takam, and he showed in that fight that he can do a lot of things in the ring.

“Joseph is 24 years of age and by the time he fights Anthony Joshua, he will have had 20, maybe 21 fights,” said Lonerman. “Breazeale hasn’t exactly been active since he became a professional, so his skill set was incredibly limited.”

Breazeale was a disappointment to a lot of boxing fans, because he talks a lot about how he was going to attack Joshua to make it a real fight, but then he failed to do so. Breazeale just stood there and took shots without making it a real fight.

Breazeale should have been willing to go out on his shield, but he clearly wasn’t. He looked like a fighter that was waiting around hoping that Joshua would eventually grow tired from hitting him all the time. When that failed to happen, Breazeale was knocked out in the 7th round after getting knocked down twice in the round.

Parker has a fight next month on July 21 against #11 WBA Solomon Haumono (24-2-2, 21 KOs) in New Zealand. It should be a good tune-up for Parker because Haumono likes to slug just like Joshua. He’s like a shorter version of Joshua with his attacking style of fighting. It should be interesting to see how Parker deals with him and his fighting style. Parker will shift gears and show a number of different areas to his game if he doesn’t decide to bang Haumono out in the 1st or 2nd rounds. If Haumono punches the issue, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Parker knock him out straightaway.

“It doesn’t worry us either way. We’ve got our shot guaranteed and it’s going to happen,” said Lonerman. “Eddie himself was saying it’s either November, December for Joseph or March, April. Either one doesn’t worry us.”

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Yes, Parker will be getting his title shot against Joshua, even if his promoter Eddie Hearn decides to delay making the fight until 2017. Parker will be ready at that time. If Hearn was thinking clearly, he would go for the fight with Parker sooner rather than later, because he’s only going to be putting Joshua into a situation where he’ll need to fight an improved fighter.

It’s not as if Parker is 34 and aging out. He’s 24 and will be better by next year than he is now. That’s not a good thing for Joshua, because he struggles when he faces guys that are powerful and that take the fight to him. We’ve seen that in the past when Joshua has faced punchers that looked to take his head off with every shot. In Joshua’s case, he hasn’t fought any punchers since he turned pro three years ago. Parker will be the first real puncher he’s faced since the Olympics in 2012.