Anthony Joshua vs. Joseph Parker possible for March

By Boxing News - 08/31/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: The date that’s being talked about for IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua’s mandatory defense of his International Boxing Federation title is in March against his #1 IBF mandatory challenger Joseph Parker. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn wants to build up the Joshua-Parker fight first by having the 24-year-old talent fighting on Joshua’s next undercard, which could be on November 26.

The only opponent for Parker could be the well-known British heavyweight David Price, who really wants a title shot against Joshua in the worst way. Price is ranked #12 by the IBF so a fight between him and Parker would be an unofficial eliminator of sorts.

Parker has already locked himself down as the mandatory for Joshua, but if he loses to Price, then that would mess up his plans. The odds of Parker losing to Price would have to be seen as very, very low though. It’s a win-win fight for Parker to take on Price on Joshua’s next undercard because it will give him some badly needed visibility.

“What we are looking at is this – we fight Alexander Dimitrenko October 1, then…we would fight on the Anthony Joshua undercard on November 26,” said Parker’s promoter Dean Lonergan to skysports.com. “Then we would fight, assuming that all things go well for Joe, in March, is the indicative date that Eddie has given us.”

So there it is. Parker fights on October 1 against Alexander Dimitrenko, then on November 26 against David Price, and finally in March against Joshua. It gives Parker more time to develop and at the same time, it helps build up the Joshua-Parker fight. It’s brilliant, I must say. It helps Parker to whip two consecutive towering heavyweights in 6’7” Dimitrenko and the 6’8” Price to get ready for the fight against the 6’6” Joshua. It’s a great way for Parker to get ready for that fight. At the same time, Joshua is also getting a good opponent in the 6’4 ½” Kubrat Pulev for his November 26 fight.

Pulev, 35, is about the same height as the 6’4” Parker, but he’s obviously got a much different fighting style than him and he’s heck of a lot older too. However, Pulev is a very young 35, and he’s more like someone 25 in terms of physical ability. He hasn’t aged at all, and he’s got so much talent. If Pulev had more punching power, he’d be a world champion already. The guy has got tons of technical talent. I rate him as a better fighter than Bermane Stiverne, the other guy that was in the running for Joshua’s next fight.

“If Parker comes over and knocks Price out, it makes the fight with Joshua in March, huge,” said Hearn to skysports.com. “Price has been calling out Joshua, but I think he needs a credible win to make their fight sizeable – and a win over Joseph Parker would not only give him that credibility but would also make him mandatory for Joshua.”

Hearn can’t be serious about the possibility of Price beating Parker to get a shot at Joshua. I guess in a parallel universe something like that could happen. Another David Price could beat Parker in duplicate world where everything is flip-flopped, but it sure as heck isn’t going to happen in this world. Parker is going to make mincemeat of the 33-year-old Price and there’s not much he can do about it.

I see that fight going all of one round before Parker blasts Price to eternity. Frankly, I’d rather see Parker matched up against Dillian Whyte or better yet, Dereck Chisora. One of those guys would at least make it semi-entertaining due to their ability to soak up punishment round after round. Price will fold too quickly, and I don’t think it would be much of a co-feature bout, if that’s where Hearn planned on sticking the fight on November 26.

I think the British boxing fans would be hopping mad at seeing Parker knock Price over in just one round, because they would have spent their hard-earned money on the card and wouldn’t be getting much for entertainment in the co-feature. It’s usually better to have entertaining fights that last a number of rounds in co-feature bouts.

Price was a decent fighter at one time some four years ago in 2012, but he’s really gone downhill since 2013 with his two knockout losses to Tony Thompson and his KO loss to Erkan Teper. Throwing Price in the ring with Parker at this point is almost unfair, because it’s such a dreadful mismatch. I hate to say it, but I think Audley Harrison would make more of a fight of it against Parker than Price at this point. I don’t think Price would be able to take more than one or two strong blows from Parker before he drops for the 10 count.

I see Parker as being a very tough fight for Joshua when that one goes down in 2017. It’s a bad match-up for Joshua, because Parker is an excellent boxer/puncher with better boxing skills than him in my view. Parker has more punching power than Romanian Mihai Nistor, a fighter that knocked Joshua out in the 2011 European Championships. Nistor didn’t do anything special to TKO Joshua other than using an in an out attacking style. Nistor would come forward and nail Joshua with tremendous shots to the head, and he would then back away to the outside. The combination of Nistor’s punching power and southpaw stance had Joshua completely confused from start to finish. Parker can do the same thing to Joshua if he follows Nistor’s game plan. Parker just needs to make sure that the punches he does throw are with major power like Nistor was doing. Joshua couldn’t handle Nistor’s power at all.

Nothing has changed with Joshua since then other than him putting on a bunch of useless muscle. His punch resistance obviously hasn’t improved. The only thing that’s changed is Joshua is heavier, and he’s beaten 17 mediocre heavyweights since turning pro in 2013. Joshua hasn’t fought any good heavyweights yet. When he steps inside the ring with Parker in March 2017, it’ll be Joshua’s first fight against a quality heavyweight since the 2012 London Olympics, when he won a controversial gold medal.