Parker: I feel I can knock Joshua out

By Boxing News - 01/20/2018 - Comments

Image: Parker: I feel I can knock Joshua out

By Tim Royner: Joseph Parker says he rates his chances of beating Anthony Joshua very high for their fight on March 31. Parker (24-0, 18 KOs) says he thinks the 28-year-old IBF, WBA heavyweight champion Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs) is a good champion, but he thinks he’s better than him, and he aims to prove it when the two of them fight each other in 2 months from now on March 31 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.

What makes Parker, 26, feel that he’s going to win the fight is by how Joshua was hurt and put down on the canvas by 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko in their fight last year on April 29 at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Parker feels that if he gets Joshua in the same position as Wladimir did, he’ll make sure he knocks him out. He won’t let him survive.

“I think he’s a good champion and I see myself as a great champion,” Parker said to Talk Sport. “That’s the reason why I want to fight him because I see it as a good challenge. We’re both good fighters, and we all want to see who the best in the world is.”

Klitschko definitely exposed some holes in Joshua’s game by showing that he’s very slow on his feet, and he doesn’t have another gear to switch to when he gets tired. Joshua has shown thus far that he does not recover well when he gets tired. It takes Joshua 3 to 4 rounds for him to get his second wind after he grows fatigued in his fights.

Joshua has been extremely lucky that the times he’d gassed out, he’s been facing fighters that either didn’t try and take advantage of it (Wladimir) or didn’t have the talent (Takam and Whyte) to try and finish him. Parker doesn’t always go after his opponents to try and knock them out. He fought defensively against Takam in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision on May 21, 2016.

Parker didn’t stay in the pocket against Takam the way that Joshua did, which made the fight harder for him. Parker had to move a great deal to avoid Takam, and that made it look like he was running from him. Similarly, Parker didn’t stand and brawl with Andy Ruiz Jr. in their fight in December 2016, and he was lucky to win a 12 round unanimous decision in that fight. Parker would have had a good chance of knocking out Ruiz if he had stood and slugged with him.

”I feel that I can knock Joshua out,” said Parker. ”I feel that if I get him into the same situation Wladimir Klitschko got him into. Then I wouldn’t give him a chance. I’ll be relentless and chase him down,” said Parker.

Wladimir made a mental error in allowing Joshua to survive after he knocked him down in round 6 of their fight last April. Wladimir’s late trainer Emanuel Steward had always pushed him to finish off his hurt opponents rather than letting the stay around once he had them hurt. Without Steward there to act as Wladimir’s brains, he trusted his own intuition and allowed the badly hurt and exhausted Joshua to survive. It was a mistake on Wladimir’s part, and it cost him the fight. Never the less, Wladimir exposed Joshua in that fight in a major way by showing that his stamina is poor, and that he has a fragile chin and he’s can’t box at a high level. If Parker gets Joshua in the same position as Wladimir did, he’s not going to count on winning a decision. Wladimir might have forgotten that he wasn’t in Germany, and he probably wouldn’t have been given the decision against Joshua anyway if he’d made it the full 12 rounds.