By Scott Gilfoid: WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker’s promoters at Duco Events are hoping to match him against IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua after they take care of mandatory challenger Hughie Fury (20-0, 10 KOs) in April. Joshua will need to win his April 29 fight against Wladimir Klitschko for the Parker-Joshua fight to take place.
There had been talk of Parker possibly facing WBC champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder in a unification fight next, but it looks like Parker’s management are keen on the Joshua fight after they take care of young Hughie.
It’s really not surprising though that they’re interested in the Joshua fight. It’s a bigger fight than the Wilder fight in terms of money. If Parker were to face Wilder, the chances are very high that he’d be knocked out by the U.S fighter. The 6’7” Wilder is no joke when it comes to punching power and hand speed. The shots that Andy Ruiz Jr. was bouncing off Parker’s fight last December would be knockout blows if Wilder was the one throwing those same punches. As such, it makes all the sense in the world for Parker to be looking to get the biggest payday possible by fighting Joshua rather than a dangerous opponent like Deontay.
“Joe’s stock – assuming he wins – will go through the roof in England, therefore it would make sense for Joe to probably target English opportunities next after Fury,” said Parker’s promoter David Higgins to skysports.com. “If Joshua won, that would be a better unification because Joe’s stocks are high. It looks like we are heading down the UK route at the moment and then once you conquer that, the United States is the next logical step.”
Parker’s promoters still want the Wilder unification fight, but after he gets done with the Hughie and Joshua fight. Unfortunately, what’s likely to happen is Parker will destroy the 22-year-old Hughie, and then lose to Joshua. Once Parker loses to Joshua, then he’ll no longer be a world champion, and he’ll need Wilder to throw him a bone by giving him a title shot.
I don’t think it’ll be worth it for Wilder to fight Parker at that point unless he can get a big payday for that fight. If not, there’s no point in Wilder fighting Parker. I mean, Wilder can fight plenty of contenders in the World Boxing Council’s top 15 rankings. Wilder doesn’t need to scour the WBO’s top 15 to pick out a recently beaten Parker for a title defense. Wilder would be better off waiting for Parker to rebuild his career before he throws him a bone by giving him a title shot.
Joshua’ s promoter Eddie Hearn will very likely jump at the chance of making a unification fight against Parker after the Klitschko fight, because it’s a winnable fight for him. It also will allow Joshua to bypass a fight against #1 WBA Luis Ortiz. I think that’s a fight that Joshua and Hearn would prefer to take place later on down the road rather than now.
By dragging the Ortiz fight into the future, they can age the Cuban fighter a little more before they take the fight. Ortiz is about to turn 38. If Joshua and Hearn can age Ortiz until he’s 39 or 40, they can increase their chances of winning that fight against him, and keeping the money train on the tracks making cash.