By Scott Gilfoid: WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker (22-0, 18 KOs) is welcoming former champion Tyson Fury to be at ringside when he faces his cousin Hughie Fury (20-0, 10 KOs) on May 6 at the Vector Arena in Auckland, New Zealand. Parker, 25, thinks it would be nice to have Tyson Fury there to watch him as he battles it out with Hughie.
Having Tyson there to watch the fight obviously increases the chances of a future fight between Parker and him if he beats the 22-year-old Hughie on May 6. Parker is the favorite to do the job on Hughie. Whether Tyson Fury will get worked up enough at seeing Hughie lose to want to lose all the weight he’s put on and return to boxing to face Parker is the important question.
Tyson says he’s weighing 350 pounds right now. Judging by some of the recent pictures of him, he could be that heavy. Tyson’s job of losing the 100 lbs. that he’s put on in the last 2 years will be formidable enough on it’s own, but he’ll also require that the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) give him back his license to fight.
It’s debatable if that will happen anytime soon. If the BBBofC doesn’t give Fury his license back for a year or two, then it’s probably no point in discussing a fight between Parker and him. We’ll be talking about Fury having been out of the ring for 3 to 4 years. That’s just too long for him to be able to come back and amount to anything in boxing in my view. Fury hasn’t fought since 2015. That was 2 years ago.
Adding another 1-2 years’ time to the existing 2 years that Fury has been out of the ring, it’s just too much time. Yeah, Parker can fight Fury in 2 years, but it would be more or less a business type of fight by that point. It would be sad to see Tyson waddle around the ring looking like a faded image of himself against Parker.
“He will get a good reception,” Parker said to skysports.com about Tyson Fury if she shows up for the Hughie fight. “He’s the man who beat the champ, so in everyone’s eyes he is still the champ in recess. It will be great to have him there, great to have him down in New Zealand. We exchanged messages on Twitter, but it will be good to meet him. People love him.”
I think Tyson will show up to give Hughie encouragement and support for his May 6 fight against Parker. I can’t see Tyson not showing up for that fight. It might even get him worked up enough to target Parker when he does return to the boxing ring to resume his career. I don’t see Tyson beating Parker though. He hits too hard, he’s too young, and he’s way too mobile. But most of all, Parker throws actual punches. He’s not like Wladimir Klitschko at this point in his career with his inability to pull the trigger on his shots.
Parker has no problems pulling the trigger. If he sees a fat and lumbering Tyson Fury in front of him, he’s going to fire off both barrels to tan his hide. I can’t see Tyson lasting long against Parker with him lighting him up with power shots.